A capacity building forum was held at the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State with the aim of empowering agricultural training institutions to promote entrepreneurship, increase employment capacities of agro-business and grow the incomes of producers. Daniel Essiet writes that more still needs to be done to achieve the desired results.
Providing farmers with tools and knowledge needed to manage farm business successfully and promoting value chain activities to create jobs across the nation’s agricultural sector formed the cornerstone of a forum tagged Capacity Building in Agricultural Education in Nigeria (CBAEN) held at the Federal College of Education, Akure, Ondo State.
It was organised by the college and Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland.
Participants and speakers included eminent scholars and trainers who have acquired reputation as successful users of agricultural practices.
After appraising the sector, participants agreed that the government’s move to build a functional agricultural sector was lofty and commendable. They however say it still requires a lot more efforts in terms of measures and incentives to boost sustainable and competitive farming practices capable of meeting growing domestic and export demand for food commodities.
Setting the tone, Project Consultant, CBAEN, Prof Placid Njoku said government’s efforts could have produced ‘what may be a working model of sustainable agriculture, resurrect the nation’s local, affordable and accessible food system but that the absence of infrastructure is hampering transference of functional agriculture to every area of the country.
He observed that despite national efforts to achieve strong development of agric industries and services in urban and rural areas, there were considerable gaps.
These breaks, according to him, have hindered farming business from growing as expected as farmers lack of knowledge to carry out viable commercial ventures to produce grains, livestock, roots and tubers.
Njoku also identified weak and inadequate agricultural extension delivery as a shortfall in the nation’s agricultural architecture, adding that Nigeria had experienced a disconnect between developed agricultural technologies and farm operators.
He stated that in effect, the huge resources expended on agricultural research seem to have been wasted as research results hardly get to the farmers. Therefore, he lamented that the opportunity of a full exploration and exploitation of the agricultural value chains is not realised.
Njoku said though the nation’s agricultural sector offers great potential that could be leveraged to drive economic growth, agricultural performance over the last decades has not been encouraging.
To reverse this, he said the government must encourage agribusinesses through incentives to help them respond to market demand for high quality products.
Canvassing the need for functional value chain across the sector, Njoku said this will not only empower farmers, but that agric manpower development institutions will direct their efforts at capacity building and technology to enable farmers and investors explore the growing commodities market.
On the CBAEN initiative, Njoku said it is a project between the Federal Government and the government of Switzerland designed to develop manpower in the sector.
According to him, the project is to be implemented by School of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences, Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) on behalf of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) at various institutions in the country, including Federal College of Education, Akure.
According to him, farmers have to be trained to systematically observe their crops and base their observations on modern farming practices to make informed decisions.
The Director of Studies, Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Kwara State capital, Dr Femi Oladunni observed that agricultural supply chains must be upgraded, deepened and expanded, adding that stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship and offering opportunities to young people within well-functioning farming and agri-food systems can help them to take up careers in farming.
He further said the economy needs to upscale infrastructure level to support farmers and agro businesses to increase food production nationwide.
To reposition the agric sector, Oladunni urged the government and the private sector to address the pervading issues of lack of modern farming knowledge, poor agricultural practices, depletion and degradation of ecosystems, adding that proper response to the challenges of food security would increase production and farmers’ incomes.
He also called on the government to facilitate easy access of rural youth to the agric sector and provide incentives to halt the rural-urban drift to ensure a sustainable increased production to feed the nation.
Speaking on Partnering options in training to promote efficiency in harnessing new value chain opportunities hunger, Project Director, Cassava: Adding Value for Africa(CAVA) Phase II, Kolawole Adebayo said the agric value chain consists of activities from farm, processing and to consumption.
Highlighting the importance of promoting value chain development, he said the outcome will encourage investors to invest in agric extension, harvesting, rural infrastructure, seeds and other inputs capable of inducing growth in the agriculture/agribusiness sectors.
According to him, poor infrastructure has impacted negatively on food security, causing less food availability, loss of jobs and livelihoods which in turn has affected farmers.
So far, he observed that the market was increasingly driving agricultural development.
International expert, Prof Robert Liehman said Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), Switzerland which he represented is determined to help Nigeria improve capacities in agriculture manpower development through the project.
Liehman who is of the Swiss School of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences, said the university has drawn a workable curriculum that would help agricultural training institutes build the capacity of actors along the food chain.
Value chain expert, Dr. Ingrid Fromm also of Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), said agricultural businesses need to learn more about what their customers want in order to develop production strategies.
She said value chain training affords participants the opportunity to pool resources and gain efficiencies of scale as well as access to information.
She said United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) commissioned the university to produce a value chain tool for interventions at country level,adding also the institution conducts diagnostics of industrial value chains to help grow national agriculture.
Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Dr Samson Odedina said the college has worked with farmers across the Southwest, helping them to adopt modern farming practices.
According to him, the college runs practical entrepreneurship programme that gives farmers a realistic picture of what it takes to run a successful small-scale produce operation—including capital, management, labour and other resources.
With support from West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP), he said farmers are receiving training to practice commercial farming.
Odedina said improving capacities of small scale farmers to manage farms through a variety of methods is essential for ensuring the economic viability of the food sector.
For youth to be persuaded to take to farming, he said agriculture must be economically rewarding, adding that the development of the services sector will increase income and improve the efficiency of farming.
As part of the college’s curriculum, he said students are made to see how improved varieties boost yields on demonstration farms ,adding that this has helped the school to bring about a change in attitudes towards farming.
While calling for assistance to help the college sustain youth driven agricultural recovery, Odedina said the institution now places emphasis on value chain activities that promote prosperous agriculture.
He stressed the need to complement the government extension machinery and this needs active participation from all actors, besides the government.
The Ambassador of Switzerland to Nigeria, Chad and Niger, Dr. Hans-Rudolf Hodel said the Swiss Government is assisting the government to address insecurity through agriculture.
Represented by the Migration Adviser, Andreas Broger, Hodel said the CBAEN project will help Nigeria explore its abundant agricultural potential, reduce unemployment, boost national food security and earn more foreign exchange.
The Director, Partnership and Linkages Programme, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria(ARCN), Dr Hassan Ahmed said there are tremendous efforts by the Federal Government to use the college of agricultures to promote profitable agric businesses.
He said the government is paying attention to their activities in order to improve agricultural production in Nigeria.
Country Representative, Harvest Plus Nigeria, Dr Paul Ilona said the nation needs to strengthen the value chain by prioritising modern farming methods, thereby bringing an overhaul of agriculture sector.
He urged the government to provide a systematic approach to rethinking food production, adding there are farming initiatives that could blossom into agri business ideas, at the end attracting widespread participation.
