Recently, the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Colleges and Research Institutions paid an oversight visit to the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) to assess budget performance and others, COLLINS NNABUIFE writes on the outcome of the visit.
OVERSIGHT is part of the functions of the National Assembly, where committees are set up both at the Senate and the House of Representatives to ascertain the level of budget implementation at all Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
One of the Committees, the House Committee on Agriculture, Colleges and Research Institutions visited the Agricultural Research Council (ARCN) as part of its oversight function.
The Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Munir Babba Dan Agundi, said their target for ARCN is for it to replicate the standard seen in Brazil, India and other developed countries.
He said the recently amended Act of the ARCN which has been signed by President Muhammadu Buhari is a step towards repositioning the Council and make it a hub of agricultural research in the continent and the world at large.
“We are aware of the progress made by some countries that we started together with such as Brazil, India and many of them in which their research system have gone beyond what we have in Nigeria and I think this is based on what their Act has bestowed them to do and we happy to be part of this progress Nigeria will go through in terms of research system by amending ARCN Act which will bring a lot of changes that will keep to the test of time in terms of research in this country.
“We want to commend the President for assenting to that bill, and we hope that the changes that we are going to see in the system will benefit Nigeria, Africa and the world in terms of research.
“We have seen a lot of changes in the development of the ARCN in terms of project execution and we have also seen leadership in what they are doing in the last few years where they have a lot of bickering in the institutions, I think this has been possible with the current National assembly Leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives and also the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We have also done a lot in terms of passing their amended bill which will help the country to ensure that the research and development in agriculture conforms with what we have in Brazil, India and some other countries that we started together”, he said
During his presentation, the Executive Secretary of ARCN, Professor Garba Sharubutu said the researches in the various Research Institutes under the ARCN are demand driven.
He said the various Research Institutes have made giant strides developing technologies to tackle some emerging diseases and pests both presently and in the past.
“We have changed the direction of our research from basic research to demand driven agricultural research and technologies. Most of our Research Institutes now are answering the yearning.
“You will recall that we had cases where we had Armyworm that was destroying maize farms, we also have instances where pests were destroying beans farms, and also the cases of Tuta Absoluta in tomatoes.
“Our research institutes have been able to find solutions to these pests and insects, that is the demand driven agricultural research initiative”, Professor Sharubutu said.
He said the researchers are now moving into incorporating nutrients into crops in order to improve the nutritional components of crops. He said that the Council has done a lot in formulating policies for the government.
“We have also done a lot in the area of formulating policies. Before now, most of our Research Institutes did not have a clear direction of where they are going, now we receive information from the Ministry of Agriculture and pass it onto our research institutes because we want a situation where whatever we are going to do is going to fall in line with the agricultural policy.
“We have made efforts in the production of rice and cassava, we are now moving into incorporating nutrients into our various crops like vitamin A incorporated in cassava, we are now heading towards incorporating vitamin A in rice”, he noted.
The ARCN boss further stated that a lot has been done in the area of improving extension activities through provision of extension teaching materials to some Research Institutes and Colleges across the country.
“We are also into the area of improving knowledge management, we have established some of the knowledge management activities we have put in place for the purpose of extension services.
“We have improved our extension activities. Before now, the problem of agriculture has been extension services, people are not actually able to access most of these technologies.
“Now we have created a lot of centres for agricultural activities but we do not have facilities for extension services. Extension is a very difficult activity, without extension teaching materials, we will not be able to carry out the activities.
“So, we have provided for sixteen of our Research Institutes and Colleges extension teaching materials based on the provision in the budget for 2020, we are going to do more for 2021”, he said.
He revealed that the Council had constructed a television studio where it intends to broadcast its activities, and also a reference museum and library to keep record of research activities and findings.
“We have constructed the ARCN reference museum from the 2020 budget, it is unheard of where you will have a Coordinating body like this without a museum, that means at no time can we provide any information to the committee. For example, if the Committee decides to ask us to give information about breeders, we will not have that information, or information about diseases, we will not be able to give.
“We cannot really trust the history of agricultural development in this country because we do not have a museum to do that, we decided to introduce that and I think this museum is now in place.
“We proposed the establishment of a communication system, it is very expensive for us to go to some of these commercial media houses to voice out our activities. The agricultural Research Council communication system is virtually in place and the television studio will be commissioned soon”, he added.
While responding on the sustainability of the Council’s studio and other facilities, the Chairman House Committee on Agriculture, Colleges and Research Institutions, Hon Agundi said the question was raised during budget defence and they (House) was assured that the studios will generate funds to run it.
When they brought the project and we passed it in the budget, we asked them how are you going to sustain it, they have a way of sustaining it. The radio and television station is something that they will also be able to generate some income which will help them to sustain them.
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