NADF Initiates Measures To Reinvigorate Agricultural Research Institutes, Colleges

ABUJA – The National Agricultural Development Fund(NADF),has conducted baseline survey/needs assessment study of 16 Agricultural Research Institutes and 17 Federal Colleges of Agriculture in Nigeria.

Mohammed Abu Ibrahim, Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of NADF, disclosed this on Friday at a two-day Report Validation Meeting with Heads of these Institutions in Abuja.

Ibrahim revealed that the management of NADF in September 2024, constituted a team that visited all the agricultural research institutes and federal colleges of agriculture across Nigeria to ascertain their strengths, constraints, challenges and opportunities.

He said: “This assessment was conducted extensively. All the Agricultural Research Institutes and Federal Colleges of Agriculture were visited. We sat down with the leadership of these institutions and came up with the Report

“The state of Agricultural Research Institutes in Nigeria is very deplorable. There is a lot of work to be done.

“They have been neglected over the years.Thanks to President Bola Tinubu Renewed Hope Agenda.

“We want to have a very tailored approach. I am not very comfortable with the word, “intervention”, but we want to see how we can leverage public sector fund to catalyse the private sector funding.

“We want to look at some of the things these institutions have and see how we can help them to commercialise some of their output.”

As part of measures to guarantee constant power supply in these institutions, Ibrahim said the NADF had signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with one of the firms in the provision of Renewable Energy to these research institutions and colleges of agriculture across the country, apart from the provision of Internet.

He further noted that priority attention would be given to research institutes and colleges of agriculture that have mandate on food security crops.

According to him, “The prioritisation will be which institutes have the mandate for the food security crops? We will start from them and cascade it down until we are able to cover all the Institutes and Federal Colleges of Agriculture in Nigeria.

“It is very worrisome that lack of investment in Research and Development, is probably, one of the reasons, we are where we are today in agriculture.

“As I mentioned before, this is the era of President Tinubu. We will not leave any stone unturned.”

In an interview with newsmen, Professor Garba Sharubutu, Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria(ARCN), described the initiative as the “rebirth of agricultural research system in Nigeria.”

Sharubutu acknowledged that over the past 25 years, there was no attempt made to carry baseline survey of all agricultural research institutes and Federal Colleges of Agriculture in Nigeria.

While underscoring the importance of agricultural research to food production, he described research as the basis and foundational to achieving food security in Nigeria.

He expressed optimism that with the support of NADF, that the agricultural research institutes and colleges of agriculture would be reinvigorated to produce viable seeds for food production.

To quote him, “I think, the reform of the present administration is beginning to touch on us.

“The only thing that I can say is that with the array of resource persons, the NADF, I am very sure that once the needed attention is given, as it is given now, we shall be looking forward to the production of very viable seeds, upgrade of our local food seed and seedlings for further food productivity.

“The whole discussion here is about the availability of viable seeds. If today, Nigerian research system is able to provide any generation seeds or foundation seeds and breeder seeds, these seeds will be made available to farmers.”

Prof. Lateef Oladimeji, one of the resource persons at the event, said some of the baseline findings would enhance manpower development as well as enhance the deployment of technology in these institutions.

“We are talking now about digital economy. The use of drones in the spray of herbicides.

“These are some of the things that need to be purposeful introduced into the Research Institutes and Colleges of Agriculture, so that if we mechanise the farm, we are sure that we are going to double the yield.

“In the future, we will have the opportunity of varieties of new breed of animals; the private sector will have the opportunity of having already made functional agricultural solutions that will be able to help us on our farms,” he assured.