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| Group Picture of the KICKSTARTS AfSIS PILOT PROJECT TO BOOST SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA |
The Federal Government has kick-started the African Soil
Information Service (AFSIS) pilot project in order to address the
lack of quality information and data on soil and agricultural landscape which
would help boost sustainable agricultural productivity across the
Nigerian agro- ecologies.
The project which is being funded by Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation builds technology innovations and services to fill one of the
major gaps in spatial Information in African soil, that is widely acknowledged
to be hampering scientific progress in agri-economic development.
It is for this reason that Bill and
Melinda Gate Foundation and Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa initiated
AFSIS projects in 5 countries namely Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and
Nigeria. Already, many international partners such as Icraf, CiATare supporting
the initiative intended to last 4 years. The Project will take off in Ebonyi and
Kebbi State; while the new techniques/ technologies will be used to build
capacity through training of staff in Abuja, Kaduna and Ibadan over the next
one week.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Bukar
Hassan during his meeting with members of the Ministerial Steering
Committee on the African Soil Information Service (AFSIS) and formal
launching of the AfSIS pilot project in the Ministry today said he
was impressed with the work AFSIS is doing to build technology
innovations and services to drive the future of African
Agriculture, particularly Nigeria and expressed hope that , the technology
would assist governments , farmers and relevant stakeholders in
Agriculture to pay more attention to soil development in moving the
agricultural sector forward.
Represented by the Director, Plantation in the Department
Of Agriculture, MrQuadriOlalekan , he declared; “Our farmers will no
longer continue to shoot in the dark , the project is important and
we will be able to maximize the duration of the project
and get the best out of it”.
Earlier the Director ,Lands and Climate Change, Engr. Sunday
Edibo has explained that the AfSIS project which is being funded by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is aimed at “rapidly
expanding the use of world class information technology and data
science to ensure that Africa’s soil and landscape
resources are described, understood and used effectively
to increase agricultural productivity and lower the
ecological footprints of agriculture as a means of raising the prosperity
of Africa’s communities and nations”.
He explained further that the African Soil
Information Service project (AfSIS) is in collaboration with the Nigeria Soil
Information System (NiSIS) and the Ministry to update soil and landscape
information for Nigeria using modern measurement and mapping
techniques.
Engineer Edibo said the area of work covered so far include;
fairly detailed soil and fertilizer response survey of the central maize
producing area of Nigeria ; training of soil and plant laboratory
for NiSIS and IITA staff in spectral methods for soil prediction; compilation
and updating of relevant remote sensing data for soil and landscape
mapping and spectral and spatial prediction model development to
generate new soil maps and landscape information products.
He stated that the team would commence the training of staff of
the ministry on soil / crop standard operating procedures
(SOP) and the information gathered would be used in soil maps and
assist farmers in crop production , particularly in supporting the
development of grasses in ranches .
The Chairman of the AfSIS- NiSIS Ministerial
Steering Committee and a University don in the Department of Soil
Science, Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
,Prof Ishaku Amapu in his presentation said the AfSIS – NiSIS
pilot project on Nutrient assessment of Nigeria crop lands is
starting with Kebbi and Ebonyi states with 582 locations
and 208 locations respectively with focus on soil development.
Professor Amapu said the pilot project would among other
things provide spatially explicit observations, measurements and
predictions of nutrients level and the information would be
used for ranches to provide grasses needed for
healthy growth of animals
He appealed to the Federal Government to expedite action
on the complete survey of the remaining part of the country.
The AfSIS Senior Adviser,World Agro Forestry Centre (ICRAF),
Nairobi , Kenya, Dr. Bruce Scott remarked that presently, the
Agriculture sector is not innovative and proactive for it’s not using the
best technology and science available;stating that “ In human
sector, there has been tremendous innovation but not
so in Agriculture, because we have refused to innovate in terms of
leveraging on new science and technology”
Dr. Scott who promised that AfSIS would continue to be a good
partner, urged the Federal Government to transform its Agriculture sector
to make it more productive for farmers and the people of Nigeria.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Chief AuduOgbeh who was worried by dearth of relevant soil
information in Nigeria inaugurated a Ministerial Steering Committee on the
African Soil Information Service (AFSIS) in the Ministry last year.
OluwakemiOgunmakinwa Mrs.
For: Director Information.
February 12,2018.
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