THE newly-appointed Executive Secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Professor Garba Sharabutu has said he would reposition the research Institutes in Nigeria to play a pivotal role in agriculture development in the country.
Professor Sharubutu was appointed the Acting Executive Secretary of ARCN in 2019, and formally appointed the substantive Executive Secretary of the Research Council in 2020.
In his mission and vision statement, Professor Sharubutu said: “The ARCN will be a centre of excellence for coordinating research, training, documentation and dissemination of quality agricultural innovations for enhanced agricultural productivity, food security, job creation and poverty eradication in Nigeria”.
“He also said his mission was to provide scholarly and administrative leadership to the Council with the view to promote agricultural research, training, extension and production of quality farm inputs and to introduce reforms within the limits of the ‘mandate of the Council and in line with the priority and objectives of the Federal Government”.
Know this strategies to achieve his mission, Professor Sharubutu said restructuring and reorganisation of the ARCN is imperative.
“This will give priority to research, development of new remedies and generation of data. It is our intension to restructure the National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) along the broad areas of agricultural practice, each with the capacity to conduct research and develop inputs based on specialisation.
“With these, every Research Institute and College of Agriculture will from time to time set targets, determine and publicise their Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as a means of measuring productivity. Research Fellows will participate in grass root mobilization and generation of information capable of triggering purposeful research”.
He said the Council would commence coordination of agricultural activities across the length and breadth of the country, and linkage with National Pension Commission towards organising farming workshop for retired public servants.
On funding of agricultural research and education, Professor Sharubutu said “whereas there are other sources of funding provided to Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education such as TETFUND, CBN, PTDF, NDIC no such interventions target NARIs, Colleges of Agriculture and related disciplines.
“ARCN should be able to initiate a bill to seeking to separate tax generated from agricultural companies and channel it to NARIS and the Colleges of Agriculture for agricultural research and training.
“This is because despite the fact that funds for the TETFUND and other funding bodies are generated from agricultural companies, NARIs and the Colleges of Agriculture have over the years been denied access to such interventions”.
On dissemination of new farming technologies, the ARCN boss said research without a proper channel of dissemination means nothing.
“The extension units of the Council will be strengthened just as all NARIs will be encouraged to strengthen their exlension units.
“The Council shall coordinate the dissemination of innovations through the electronic media. To this end, cooperate sponsorship of media activities will be promoted in line with what obtained with programes beneticial to the people.
“Communication and Agriculture related companies shall be solicited to fund extension programmes as is obtainable globally. Eventually efforts shall be made to establish “Radio agric” to educate fanners on agriculture. This shall be a joint venture with Farmer Associations and agricultural and related companies”, he noted.
He said the Council would also embark on the establishment of National Museums of Agriculture, herbariums and Biological.
On development of new products, Professor Sharubutu said “since the establishment of our Research Institutes, there has been a slow pace of new discoveries.
“This has led to the influx of foreign materials Which may not necessarily be suitable to our farming system. Efforts will be made towards developing new technologies to meet our local needs and that of our immediate neighbours.
“To achieve this, the Council will introduce a reward system for innovations and productivity. In addition, a biannual exhibition of research activities will be introduced to reward innovation by Researchers, the Research Institutes, Colleges of Agriculture and agriculture related organisations”.
On capacity building, he said the Research Institutes/Colleges of Agriculture under the coordination of ARCN have lost many experienced staff to retirement and death.
“There is a need to build the capacity of existing staff. The current drive towards boosting capacity of member nations by international partners is the introduction of twinning, which is collaboration between weak and strong laboratories among research institutions.
“The ARCN will capitalise on this innovation to build capacity in our Research Institutes and Colleges of Agriculture”, he added.
“The issue of revenue generation has to be taken seriously for the Council to achieve its mandates. Relying on budgetary allocation cannot sustain the numerous activities of the Council.
“The Council must seek external funding and support for individual and departmental projects. The Council will explore the possibility of grants available from donor agencies and write proposals for funding. Farmer organization will also be mobilized to fund activities of the Council. Council will also seek ways of generating revenue internally.
“With the current global economic meltdown, Interally Generated Revenue (IGR) will enhance growth and reduce the over dependency of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) on budgetary allocation.
“The NARS currently produce a number of remedies which are very useful and in high demand. The mechanism for the distribution of these products” Professor Sharubutu said.
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