Recession: Nigeria requires effective agricultural extension – VC

The Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, on Wednesday said Nigeria required effective agricultural extension service to get out of present economic recession.
Prof. Ibrahim Garba, made the disclosure at the opening ceremony of 2016 National Agricultural Extension Review Meeting.
The three-day meeting was held at the National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS), Samaru, Zaria, Kaduna State.
The V-C, who was represented by Prof. Ezra Bako-Amos, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, said: “I believe that effective agricultural extension is a sure strategy in charting our way out of economic recession.
“The global reduction in oil price, the self-inflicted reduction in crude oil production capacity and the fall in the value of Naira have all contributed to putting Nigeria in a serious economic crisis.
“Agriculture has been identified as a way out of the crisis through increasing the production of food and cash crops and guaranteeing national food security,” he said.
Garba also said that for Nigeria to be food secured, the pivotal role of agricultural extension services in improving agricultural production and productivity must not be undermined.
According to him, there is no better time to discuss Nigeria agriculture than now, because, some of the recent news about food security in Nigeria paint gloomy pictures of poverty and hunger.
“Inflation rate rose from 9.6 percent in January 2016 to 18.3 percent in October 2016.”
In his speech, the NAERLS Director, Prof. Mohammed Khalid-Othman, said the service has remained the foremost institute for agricultural extension research and capacity development in Nigeria.
“Based on that, we have been partnering with all stakeholders in the agricultural value chain and extension delivery to plan and implement extension activities in the country.
“You could recall, every year about this time, we hold this meeting to deliberate on agricultural extension issues and chart a cause of action,” he said.
Khalid-Othman recalled that the Federal Government in August this year launched a road map on agriculture, known as “Green Alternative for Promotion of Agriculture from 2016-2020”.
“This roadmap is aimed at diversifying the economy through agricultural sector due to unlimited potentials, the need to create jobs for the teeming population of youth and the huge and unsustainable food importation bills.
“I wish to inform you that NAERLS with its national mandate on an agricultural extension is at the core centre of implementation of this roadmap.
“This is by training of hundreds of unemployed youths on skills in agricultural production, income generation and extension delivery services.
“The most recent one is the training of unemployed youths in Gombe State on Agricultural Advisory Service Delivery,” he said.
The meeting drew participants from Agricultural Development Programmes, seed companies, farmers’ associations as well as other stakeholders in the industry across Nigeria.