Editorial -Food security: Using Monitoring and Evaluation

 Using Monitoring and Evaluation

One significant gap in the Nigerian agricultural value chains is lack of effective use of monitoring and constant feedback to measure performance

of field progress so far recorded in government programmes except the ones that have affiliation with international organizations or donor agencies like World Bank, African Development Bank etc where planning and evaluation are constantly reviewed in order to ensure target result towards food security.

Nigeria cannot be totally ruled out when it comes to agricultural programmes right from 1962-68 when the first national development plan was instituted which introduced the use of more modern methods through farm settlement and cooperative models of transferring technologies to farmers. However, before the present administration New Green Agricultural policy, there was Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) that emphasized on productivity through the food value chains. But particularly to narrow down the point we want to drive home, the performance of the last administration was not very visible due to lack of effective monitoring and evaluation at all the stages of the implementation.

With this experience there is need for caution to be taken with the new grain alternative agriculture policy of the present administration where the monitoring and evaluation unit must be galvanizise to be able to produce performance result whenever the need arises for it. This also will make implementation of the policy and any project along more effective as it would serve as checks and ensuring delivery to all programme implementation.

This M&E unit should also be made very proactive at all the level of activities in the research and technologies transfer through the farm trials at all the Research Institutes in Nigeria. The unit according to stakeholders at the recently concluded Annual Research Review and Planning meeting / North-West Zonal REFILS was described as being a powerful engine department that must put every research programme on its toe for effective progress and impact on the farming activities.

All efforts in the FMARD as regards the effective use of M&E should be channelled to synchronize project in such a way to aviod order duplication of function and multiple expenditure on a same project for lack of monitoring report.