In a bid to boost the staff strength of agricultural research institutions across Nigeria, the federal government has approved the recruitment of 1650 scientists....CONTINUE READING
The Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Prof. Garba Sharubutu, who revealed this at an interactive session with journalists Friday in Abuja, also said research institutions have released 23 quick maturing crops, like rice, yams, cassava, that are critical in the nation’s pursuit of food security.
Prof Sharubutu said that due to the importance of research in the attainment of food security, the federal government approved the recruitment of 1650 scientists to boost the staff strengthen of agric research institutes in the country.
“We were instructed to recruit breeders, those that will bring about genetic improvement of our local crops,” he said.
He disclosed that the council had completed training for the newly recruited scientist whom he said will go back to train others.
Sharubutu noted that the welfare of the workers was at the core of its strategy to boost productivity.
According to him, “We are working on improving the working environment of our staff. The aim is the help our workers function very well. We have stated capacity building for them and that is to build their knowledge and confidence. By three years ago, we had only three PhD holders, but I can tell you
that as at today, we have over 15 PhD holders.
“We are also providing working materials for our workers, first in the area of accommodation and the area of tools. As a Coordinating body, we should have materials for data generation.”
According to him, the nation currently has up to 16 research institutions with specific mandates to focus on specific crops.
“So there are those that are in charge of mainly cereals that is grains, like rice, beans. There are those that are in charge of tree crops, like rubber, palm oil. There are also those that are in charge of fisheries, Marine, and fresh water.
“There are those that are responsible for livestock, like the National veterinary research institute, as well as the national animal production research institute. There are also those that are responsible for extension, national agricultural extension research and liaison services.
“If we need food to be placed on the table, our advice to the government is to concentrate on quick maturing crops. What do we mean by quick maturing crops? We mean rice, yam, cassava, Guinea corn, millet. These are what we call the quick maturing crops.
“But our advice also is the fact that other products or order commodities should not be neglected. We cannot neglect the cash crop because of the need to diversify. And if you look at the mandate of Mr. President, and his priority list he mentioned food security as a priority.”
Sharubutu stressed the need for training and education of commodity associations in the food security
campaign to boost food production.
According to him, most farmers who are members of such associations listen only to their leaders without having an understanding of how to cultivate crops in line with evolving global practice and methodologies.
“We need a closer collaboration with our farmers, commodity associations and meteorological unit. If you recall when President Tinubu was talking about the declaration of a state of emergency, he said he wants to revive the commodity associations.
“Some of these farmers listen more to the leadership of their association much more than they listen to government, why because the politicisation of our polity in itself makes some people not to listen to certain radios, not to listen to television programmes. They listen to what they want to hear.
“So we think that the commodity associations will do better if they actually key into the programmes of government.
“Most of the associations were gearing up towards how much budget is going to be made so that they will be able to manipulate and get these resources to reach the farmers.
“The declaration of emergency is not just about pumping more money, it is also about education. And I call on our commodity associations to please key into this policy by way of educating their members as to the viability of some of these things we preach on,” he said.
“We now have four new varieties of maize that are resistant to army worm, a major
destructive maize disease. They are also quick maturing and resistant too oops the effects of climate change. We also have new varieties of beans that can resist insects that decrease their productivity.
“We have varieties of tomatoes and okro that are quick yielding to give us large number of products per hectares and many more.”
Noting that agricultural research is at the centre of all attempts to boost food production, he called on the media to support the council by not only reporting research results, but also informing people of where those researches are domiciled and how farmers can access the products of the research so that they can take advantage of them.
