The proposed Nigeria Agricultural Extension Services Bill, which has passed through first reading on the floor of the House of Representatives, has been hailed as a very necessary addition to supporting a sustainable and resilient agricultural system in Nigeria.
SolaceBase reports that the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi made this declaration at the technical update meeting held in Abuja on Friday to review stakeholders’ feedback on the proposed bill and further finetune it.
He noted that with about 70% of the population involved in agriculture, it is important to ensure they receive the kind of technical support they need to be able to achieve optimal outputs and good income. He declared that this is where Extension Agents become very important, stressing that having the right extension delivery system legislation will boost sustainable and resilient agriculture in the country.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi speaking at the event in Abuja on Friday.
“Our visionary President, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu desires a country where no man or woman goes to bed hungry. This means food should be available all over the place. So, how to produce this food is what Extension Agents are designed to help you achieve”, he said.
The Minister added that Extension Agents don’t just show farmers Good Agronomic Practices, they step down successful research results and new innovative techniques to farmers for improved outputs. “So, Extension Agents are very positive additions to how farmers are supposed to operate. And so, to me the proposed bill will be a game changer, and I think with this, Nigeria will begin to show that we are serious with our Agriculture.”
In her remarks, Country Director of the WOFAN ICON2, Mastercard Foundation funded Project, Dr Salamatu Garba stressed that an efficient extension service system will benefit not only farmers who will have improved outputs if they get good extension support but also good income from agriculture will also attract more people, especially youths, to agriculture.
This, she noted will have the triple effect of reducing youth unemployment while increasing food production and ultimately improving food sufficiency and food security.
Dr Salamatu said, “Efficient extension service delivery system will help farmers improve outputs. This will in turn lead to enhanced income and enhanced income from agriculture will attract more people, especially youths, to agriculture. This will reduce youth unemployment, and with more people involved in food production, Nigeria will achieve food sufficiency and, ultimately, food security.
She explained that the (WOFAN-ICON2) Project is a five-year intervention which seeks to create decent and sustainable employment opportunities for 675,000 youth between 18 and 35 years old as part of Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works (YAW) strategy with the main goal of ensuring that the young participants living across 10 Nigerian states have improved quality of life.
Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of the National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS), Prof. Emmanual Ikani used the computer hardware and software analogy to describe how important extension service is to the success of agriculture.
“No matter how beautiful your computer is, it is useless without an operating system or software. No matter how beautiful research results and agricultural technologies are, if there is no extension delivery system to disseminate them to farmers, then the results and technologies will just gather dust. This is the gap which this bill will plug; it will provide the necessary legal framework for a sustainable extension delivery system that will translate research results and technologies into successes for farmers”, he explained.
The meeting was attended by experts and specialists as well as stakeholders from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs); scholars; media, researchers; women and youth-led agribusiness value chain actors as well as diversity and inclusion advocates.