Food Security: Quick Action Tinubu/ Shettima must take, says IAR&T Don

 

The upcoming President,  Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaj Ahmed Bola Tinubu and his vice has been advised on five immediate actions to be taken to reposition Agricultural sector towards sufficient foods availability for local and export consumptions.

 Prof. Samuel Olakojo, a plant breeder at the Institute of Agricultural Research & Training( IAR&T), Moor plantation, Ibadan responding to questions on what the new administration should do differently as a matter of urgency to rescue the food hike situation in the country said that the issue of insecurity must be uppermost to return farmers back to farms, pointed that kidnapping, herdsmen/ farmers' clashes,  killings through tribal conflicts have all added to shortage of food productions which had resulted to costly prices all over.

Prof. Olakojo pointed that the President elect would do much better in agricultural development if soil maps and surveys are applied to delineate productive land areas with comparative crops advantage, saying that statistical planning and basic facilities deplorement would be easily achieved with good result to enhance food productivity for both local and export through the means.

The intern professor expatiated saying that " if we really want to do Agriculture in this country, let soil maps and surveys be used to determine crops advantage areas for productivity development with location of agro processing centres, market places with fixed guarantee food prices in kilograms as middle men are assembled to become agreegators just as light energy is also provided in a cluster manner"

" Government should look at each region with crop comparative advantage and attach all necessary gadgets to produce efficiently so that investors can know regions or areas that a particular crop is peculiar to. This will enable statistics to be easily gathered for further planning and development in such places"

He went further saying that Tinubu/ Shettima administration must adopt technology driven Agriculture to reposition the sector pointing that days of using crude tools to practice food productivity is no longer in vogue as drones are now used to collect data for proper planning towards food sufficiency in many advanced countries of the world.

He advanced that food security achievement must not rely on environmental variables, but rather an application of climate smart agricultural practices whereby green houses technology of growing standard tomatoes for local and external consumption is being upheld for round the year production to mitigate vagaries of climate change.

Speaking on research and their importance to farmers, he pointed that institutional crops' mandate should be cancelled, and suggested that National Agricultural Research Institutes ( NARIs) be permitted to research all crops in the comparative areas of their location saying it will enhance technologies being made closer to farmers at the nip of time as he queried " how can IAR&T in Ibadan with mandate on kenaf be more effective to a farmer in Jos as a research institute"

The plant breeder professor said  " let all NARIs have mandate to all crops that are grown in their areas of locations by farmers with 75%. This will bring research closer to them as they will be able to know the soil problem together with agronomics challenges. And Federal Government must be ready to fund them. The advantage is that farmers will have access to Research Institutes at the right and appropriate time"

Olakojo advised that the in coming President must avoid separation of Ministry of Agriculture from Water Resources saying the two must be joined in order to synergy properly on the use of land and water for agricultural production round the year pointing that while the main minister can be in charge of Agriculture, the state minister can be in water resources working together as a team.

" All the dams in Nigeria are under the Ministry of Water Resources and the end users at the ministry of Agriculture. How do you reconcile this? Why can't you come together as a single ministry with better funding" said Prof. Olakojo.

Olakojo advised on the timely release of funds to all agricultural projects by Government, saying the oversight function of the members of National Assembly must be thoroughly carried out to ensure effective implementation of released funds and to  checkmate unholy uses that could hinder food security.

According to him " There is no point releasing money when the planting seasons are almost off. All agricultural activities are timely bind and release of funds must target that in order to give desired results. The National Assembly should be more proactive in their oversight functions on the sector as this will serve as check to non proper untilization of fund or project implementation. Instead of a visit in a year, they can share themselves into two to make it twice in a year. This will check many wrong doings''

He however advocated for implementation of Maputo declaration in which Nigeria is a signatory to paying 10 percent of the national total budget into agricultural development, pointing that FG has never met with the agreement knowing full well that food was the common denominator to mankind.