From Okwe Obi, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has promised to move the country’s agricultural sector from subsistence farming to market-driven venture.
President Tinubu stated this yesterday in Abuja at opening ceremony of the 6th Africa-Wide Agricultural Extension Week.
He said the initiative was part of his administration’s agenda to revamp the country’s economy from borrowing to finance government activities and create jobs.
Represented by the Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, he said: ” The present administration is pursuing a 8-point agenda which include food security; poverty eradication; growth, job creation and access to capital amongst others”.
According to him, the present administration has outlined several programmes towards achieving food security and also guaranteeing safe and profitable food exports to increase the country’s foreign exchange base.
He further stressed the need for more investments in agricultural extension services, noting that it plays critical roles in food production systems.
He said, “Agriculture must be market oriented and move away from the subsistence farming been practiced by our smallholders farmers.
“In achieving this the government has come up with programmes such as National Agriculture Growth Scheme-Agro-pocket where millions of farmers are supported through training on Good Agricultural Practices, Certified inputs such as improved seeds and organic and inorganic fertilizers and irrigation equipment at highly subsidized prices to enhance their production, increase productivity and ultimately higher incomes to the farmers.
“Agricultural extension plays a critical role in bringing relevant and improved technologies developed by National Agricultural Research Institutions (NARIs), inputs suppliers and marketers to farmers.
“And to strengthen Agricultural Extension Delivery Services in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has put together the first ever Harmonized Extension Manual in Nigeria and National Agricultural Extension Policy.
“The Harmonized Extension Manual focuses on how to effectively disseminate and deploy agricultural innovations/technologies to end-users using appropriate extension methods.”