Stakeholders ask NCAM to infuse technology to grassroots

Stakeholders have demanded that the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) be well represented at the grassroots where farmers who needed their technologies reside.

This request was made at the second edition of stakeholders on mechanization meeting held at the centre, recently.

They argued that for the effective off take of available mechanization technologies at NCAM to be well-felt by the states and local governments, there was need for a  showroom centre for all the prototype machines and simple agricultural equipment across the country for easy accessibility to all end users through the extension services.

The stakeholders drawn from the academia, media and government officials from the Agricultural Development Programme (ADPs) from the North East, South-South and South-East zones of the country called for more partnership between the ADPs at the 37 states of the federation and NCAM saying this would avail farmers and fabricators the opportunities of available technologies for off take and usage.

Imo state ADP director, Mr. Jonathan Anayochi, during the questions and answers session suggested the need for more synergy between the NCAM and ADPs in the 37 states saying these outlets would reduce cost on the centre and also serve as outreach to rural farmers and other stakeholders, adding that the labour force of the extension services was daily going down without replacement coupled with low funding of the department.

 ADP Gombe’s Mr. Sunday Lah, requested that his state be assisted by the centre especially in the area of planter equipment for maize, cowpea and sorghum for commercial mass production, saying the cost implication of planting a hectare in the state was enormous and was even higher during the rainy season while representative from Yobe state asked for NCAM’s presence with provision of thresher machines.

Lah added that NCAM should scale down their machines and other equipment into smaller entities for affordability by farmers,  adding that the closer the centre to the grassroots, the better for ADPs and other end users like the local fabricators who may want to off take any prototype for commercialization.

The director of ADP Anambra state, Mrs. Ify Uzoka attested to the efficacy of NCAM machineries especially for cassava sieving which her state had benefitted in the past during the root and tuber expansion programme when training was given to fabricators who all proudly put in their sign post that they were NCAM trained, adding such relation must be fast-forwarded to attract more technologies transfer to grassroots farmers and local fabricators in a private and public partnership.

Speaking also, Dr. John Ojediran, Landmark University commended NCAM for its impact on agricultural mechanization provisions at all the value chains of food productivity, pointed out that all stakeholders must be ready to play an impactful role in ensuring the adoption of locally produced machineries and simple tools in the country for food commercialization adding that his institution had benefitted a lot from NCAM especially in some cases they could not handle.

The two paper presentations by the different speakers posited that agricultural mechanization in the face of industrialization and commercialization with simple tools and equipment be properly prioritised by government in order to remove drudgery in production, processing and marketing for better economic empowerment of  farmers through adoption of new technologies by a well-funded extension services with  engineering personnels integration for better service delivery on  machines usage and maintenance.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)’s Dr. B.A  Achem in his paper titled  “impact of farmers income level on commercialization and adoption of agricultural mechanization technologies” suggested that the ADP officials must be a strong vehicle for mechanization off take through constant training programmes that would ensure simple tools and equipment adoption by farmers.

Achem pointed out that ADPs directors must be ever ready to present convincing memos to the right authorities on why there must be constant mechanization trainings so as to create avenue for farmers adaptation  saying that “ all the participants are expected to be an ambassadors of NCAM programme on training programme for off take.’’

In his presentation on  “ challenges and prospects of extension in the development of agricultural mechanization in research and development in Nigeria,’’  Prof. Joshua Olaoye  advocated for Food and Agriculture ( FAO) suggestion for more land cultivation using improved technologies to achieve green revolution in view of increasing population saying many of the countries that were in the same level with Nigeria in the past have left her behind due to adoption of modern tools and machineries application to doing farming business, adding that extension services must make technologies information available to the people that needed them.

Earlier in his speech, NCAM’s Executive Director (ED) Engr. (Dr.) M.Y Kasali attributed the poor level of new technologies dissemination and adoption to lack of enough numbers of extension workers inferring from World Bank recommendation of ratio 1: 800 between officers and farmers.

Engr. Kasali stressed that government cannot not leave farmers at the mercy of high cost of implements and other agricultural tools adding that  they must be subsidised like other inputs like fertilizer and seeds so the commercialization industrialization would not be a mere dream.

Said he, ‘’the farmers are poor, and most of these farmers reside in the states but most of the state Governments have not deemed it fit to assist them in subsidizing agricultural equipment. The major inputs such as fertilizer, seeds etc are currently subsidized, but in acquiring of equipment farmers had been left at the mercy of the dealers which made it absolutely beyond the resources poor farmers’ purchasing power. The dearth of extension workers have also contributed immensely to the low level of dissemination and adoption of new technologies in the country.’’

In his remarks to responses on NCAM scaling down closer to farmers and designing sizeable prototype that can be easily afforded by farmers said the centre has been doing quite well in getting closer to the grassroots which he promised would be intensified into many more states in the year 2020.