Agric council ready with research output for farmers- ES
By Bukola Adewumi
The Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), says various research works have been put to use in farms but no off-takers to boost food security.
Prof. Garba Sharubutu, Executive Secretary of the ARCN, made this known on Wednesday In Abuja while presenting his Scorecard to Agriculture Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ACAN).
Sharubutu said off-takers were yet to buy those research works and it is the major problem research institutes are facing.
“There is a lot of competition between quick yielding trade and agriculture unless we begin to look at agriculture as short and long term, we will never be able to get it right.”
According to him, the government released fund to the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN) to develop new varieties of the crop.
“When we went to brief the minister over the issue of cocoa research, his first challenge to us there is some of the best breeders we have in this country are Yoruba.
“Cocoa is a Yoruba crop, how come the best brains are now allowing the best product to be taken over by Ivory Coast.
“Just last week, the Executive Director of Cocoa Research Institute was given a grant to develop Cocoa, and that was out of the observation that was raised,” he said.
For livestock, the ARCN boss said National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) has been making efforts to improve the milk and meat output of cattle, but it has been faced with the challenge of getting the animals in one place.
“We are trying to improve on the milk production. The problem is that NAPRI attempted to do artificial insemination in order to improve the genetic material of our breeds in order to have higher yielding milk as well as high-yielding meat.
“What is the problem? Artificial insemination has to do with getting the animals to stay in one place because you cannot artificially inseminate an animal that is hungry.
“So, you put them in one place, you flush them, when they come on heat, you inseminate them.
“We have keyed into the National Livestock Transformation Programme (NLTP), and this is the best way to go. Ban grazing in terms of moving from one place to the other, and locate them (livestocks),” he explained.
He said a proposal has been sent to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to approve the establishment of internship in all the colleges to serve as training centre for Agriculture graduates.
“I have under my purview 11 colleges of Agriculture, and let us assume that these colleges are producing 20 HND holders, so we’re going to have 220, now you have 220 farmers every year in this country, it is going to impact seriously.
“But the total number of Colleges of Agriculture we have in this country is 52 so if each of them produce 20 HND holders, what are we doing with this 20?
“By our own analysis, we have found out that less than 30 per cent of them go into agriculture. We have written a proposal, right now the proposal is on the table of the Minister.
“We create entrepreneurship centres in all our colleges of agriculture, that will serve as internship, let the graduates of agriculture go there and learn the trade
“So, the proposal is there, we are trying to see how we would do in order to encourage people to go into Agriculture, and internship is the best method for us,” he added.
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