Sasakawa using extension agents to scale up agric technology adoption in grassroots —Official

The Director, Strategic Partnership at Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), Dr Mel Oluoch, has said that SAA is creating awareness and scaling up agriculture technology adoption in rural communities in Nigeria and Africa.

Speaking with Nigerian Tribune at the Africa – Wide Agricultural Extension Week (AAEW), Dr Oluoch said SAA, over the years, has engaged in agriculture technology transfer using the extension agents.

The theme of the AAEW is ‘Harnessing Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in Scaling Regenerative Agriculture and Nature Based Solutions for Food System Transformation in Africa’

He said the role of SAA in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is central to the success of extension services in Nigeria.

“What we do is agriculture technology transfer. We take technologies which have been developed by research institutes to scale, to ensure it reaches every single farmer on ground.

“So, we have developed different extension models which guide the way in which we scale up these technologies and using these extension models, we basically provide demonstrations in different communities and different states in Nigeria and other African countries and work with farmers at the grassroots to adopt these technologies,” he said.

“We do this in partnership with Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and to make sure that we have an element of sustainability, when we leave an areas where we have worked for many years, we leave extension agents behind to continue the work”, he said.

He said “our model is very simple, we have several strategic pillars we work; the first is Regenerative Agriculture where we focus on crop productivity enhancement; Nutrition Sensitivity Agriculture where we promote nutrition focused Agriculture intervention, including post-harvest sector.

“The third is Market-Oriented Agriculture where we work with farmers to grow crops for sale and not only for home consumption; the fourth is Capacity Building where we partner with Nine Universities in Nigeria, Thirty-one universities in total around Africa to train agricultural extension agents to help scale up these technologies.

“So, we improve the scales of extension agents by supporting the universities to train them in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and we work with them at the grassroots to be able to scale up these technologies”.

Dr Oluoch further noted that SAA has put in the hands of farmers many technologies which are need-based. He said they don’t promote any technology, but they work together with the farmers, figure out what their needs are, and what their challenges are and try to remove all the constraints causing these challenges.

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• Tinubu intervenes in Fubara, Wike rift

• Reps summon Betta Edu over N1.1trn Conditional Cash Transfer

• 2023 Ballon d’Or: Osimhen finishes eight, becomes highest ranked Nigerian footballer

• 2024 Olympic Qualifiers: Super Falcons thrash Ethiopia, zoom to next round

• Four kinds of people you should date

• PRESSTIME PODCAST: Digital Media, social media, where do we draw the line

• EDITORIAL: Sheikh Gumi’s incendiary outburst