Agric ministry releases 6-year blueprint
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mahmood Mohammed Abubakar, has said the ministry is set to release the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) 2022 -2027, which will be the main framework on how to drive agriculture for the next six years.
The minister, who said this at a briefing convened for the stakeholders in the agricultural sector by the ministry in Abuja, noted that they would also review how the ministry feared in the past year and set tone for 2022.
He said the present administration was committed to taking agricultural research to the next level through research, innovation and technology, noting that President Buhari holds agriculture dear to his administration’s agenda.
According to the minister, no country exists without a good agricultural base; hence, the present administration counts on agriculture for food production and economic development in order to bring the country back on the path of growth.
He said the ARCN amended act, 2021 had made provision for the establishment of spin-off companies within the National Agricultural Resaerch Institute (NARIs) federal colleges of agriculture, which is a deliberate strategy by President Buhari to utilise the enormous potentials to generate revenues and to augment the current budgetary allocations.
The minister wondered why extension services units in Nigeria were lagging behind the global standards. He, therefore, directed that with the expected increase of manpower, all the stakeholders were to rejuvenate the extension services unit and ensure effective delivery of research results to end users.
In his response, the executive secretary of the ARCN, Prof Garba Hamidu Sharubutu, acknowledged the minister’s remarks and directives, but raised some concerns regarding the new amended ARCN act, which, according to him, cannot be fully implemented without his (minister’s) approval.
The essence of the meeting was to familiarise the minister with chief executive officers of NARIs and FCAs.