Agricultural productivity in Nigeria continues to confront numerous difficulties ranging from limited adoption of study findings and systems to minimal level of irrigation improvement, among the many others.
As described by the Foods and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), agriculture continues to be the basis of the Nigerian economic system.
Sad to say, the mechanised agricultural generation, storage program and preservation of agricultural production have been deserted for tempting nearby and foreign income of oil earnings generated from oil sale.
Now that unemployment is biting so challenging throughout the state, the want to spend ample awareness to the agriculture sector as it gives endless options for work and prosperity development as well as accelerated financial and industrial development are unable to be overemphasised.
To reverse this trend and drive for a transformation in the nation’s agricultural sector, the Tertiary Education and learning Trust Fund (TETFund) is emphasising the require for significant investment decision in agriculture that will not only ensure meals protection but also tackle the troubling dilemma of unemployment.
As a result, the Fund is presently sponsoring a lot of scholars in Brazil with the sole objective of under-learning their Agricultural Revolution Coverage and its influence on the national economic system.
Just lately, it struck a partnership offer with Brazil and the Forum for Agricultural Investigation in Africa (FARA) at the 1st Agricultural Analysis and Innovation Fellowship for Africa (ARIFA) Symposium, held at Federal College of Viçosa, Brazil.
TETFund partnership with the functions is to build strategic competencies in Agricultural Investigation for Growth (AR4D) by leveraging on the most effective exercise of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) approach of FARA.
FARA’s Agricultural Study and Innovation Fellowship for Africa (ARIFA) has been supporting the education of Nigerian academic workers to undertake tailor-created MSc systems In Various fields of sciences associated to agriculture at Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV)-Federal College of Viposa.
ARIFA was introduced at the 7th Brazil-Africa Forum in São Paulo, Brazil, in November of 2019, below the leadership of Nigeria’s Minister of Condition for Education, Barrister Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, and the Ghanaian Ambassador to Brazil, Professor Abena Busia.
Speaking not too long ago in Abuja throughout a roundtable assembly on the implementation of ARIFA in Nigeria the TETFund manager, Arc Sonny Echono re emphasised the great importance of agriculture in addressing unemployment in Nigeria, although enjoining the vice chancellors to set more energy for actualisation of agriculture transformation.
He said, “My demand to you is to make this a particular mission because I’m pretty assured that if we get it correct in agriculture in this country half of our troubles will be solved due to the fact it is the simplest means of producing careers.
“Most of those people who are becoming recruited into banditry, who are staying recruited into the insurgency, if they are capable to operate on the land they will maybe prefer to do that.
“And if we can locate modern ways of accomplishing things that will drastically improve profits due to the fact as the generate boosts, of study course revenues increase and it tends to make it much more appealing.
“As we adopt new technological know-how, establish our mechanization and irrigation we will discovered chances by way of industrial agriculture and we will be equipped to absorb the graduates that will deliver for the reason that most of the situation if you observe, more than 60 percent of these who graduate with agriculture go on to do other points with their life due to the fact we never have industrial farming that can absorb this workforce we developed.
“But as we create the sector, then the need for staff in that sector will improve and we will be in position to also enhance our earnings.
“There are nations that count only on agriculture and they are performing extremely perfectly and it is the one source that God has blessed us with.
“I enjoin you to choose this message and get this challenge incredibly severely. There may be handful of errors alongside the line but we need to correct ourselves. We need to operationalize the facilities of excellence as promptly as we can,” the ES included.
Echono reported Nigeria can understand a large amount from Brazil through partnership supplied their observe history in the spot of agriculture, stating that almost everything is crafted by way of nationwide foods security and it is the responsibility of all of us to guarantee that comes about.
The drive to assure overall transformation in the agriculture sector has earned the government secretary the most prestigious medal of honour award by the Discussion board FARA in recognition of the govt secretary’s continued work to help agricultural transformation in Nigeria by Science.
Echono received the award in Accra, Ghana, at the extraordinary steering committee conference of the Agricultural Study, and Innovation Fellowship for Africa (ARIFA) for his outstanding aid and eyesight for implementing the blueprint of Agricultural Investigation and Growth by the African Union for Nigeria.
He pledged his continued push to help the agricultural transformation though expressing his commitment to expanding the number of fellows to at the very least 500, given the encouraging footprint of the programme.
“An Architect by instruction and very well-recognized agribusiness entrepreneur, he comes to his current position with strong accolades and reliable footprints in the Agricultural sector. As the erstwhile Lasting Secretary of Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Arc Echono shown a commendable assistance for the initiatives of FARA as the Capacity Progress Cluster with accelerated vigour.
“You are the 1st receiver of this type of honour, so it is my pleasure to give it to you in recognition of what you did for us in the past and what you are doing now. It is pretty inspiring for us,” states Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, the government director of FARA.