Agriculture Extension Services bill is designed to promote agric development in Nigeria-Minister

The Nigeria Agriculture Extension Services bill is designed to promote extension service delivery among the various farming communities in the country

Minister for State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi stated this over the weekend at a technical update meeting held in Abuja to review stakeholders’ feedback on the proposed Nigeria Agriculture Extension Service bill.

According to him, extension workers are the life wire on which the development of agriculture depends as the education they give to farmers determines the success in the agriculture value chain.

SolaceBase reports that the minister said that in a country like Nigeria that has over 70% of the population that are into farming, the extension workers, and farmers ratio in the country is not encouraging.

‘’Extension agents work for farmers, a situation where you have one agent to 10,000 farmers cannot bring the expected good result in agriculture when the standard practice is supposed to be around one extension agent to a maximum of 300 farmers, this is parts of what the bill will address when it becomes a law,’’ the minister said.

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‘’What the president desired us to do, is to transform our food system into a sustainable system that will guarantee food security,  so having an extension legislation will be a very necessary addition to supporting a resilient system. This translates to the fact that anything that is going to be done with an issue on extension workers, there should be law guiding such.’’

He emphasised that though the country has an agriculture extension service policy, it needs to be backed up with legislation.

In his contribution, Director of Extension, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Deola Tayo Olobanjo advocated earmarking 5% percent from the National Agriculture Development Fund for extension services.

Olabanjo said efforts will be made to ensure that the bill contained the percentage to be set aside for extension activities in Nigeria.

He said initially there was a suggestion for a dedicated fund to cater for extension activities but it was later removed from the bill since there is a National Agriculture Development Fund which the extension activities can tap into.

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‘’It is a window of funding for extension activities in Nigeria, and we are praying that it will be part of the final bill we are sending to the National Assembly for passage, ‘’Olabanjo said.

He said the fund would take care of extension activities at the national, states and local government levels.

According to him, extension service is key to whatever agricultural development efforts are being put in place in the country.

‘’Agriculture extension agents educate, inform and support the farmers which translates to good yield and harvest, which means more revenue for the farmers and the nation at large.The efforts of the extension workers reduce loss on the farm and poverty eradication.

On his part, Prof. Emmanuel Ikani, Director, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, while speaking on the importance of the Nigeria Agriculture Extension Services bill said no matter how good any research work carried out on agriculture development is, if there are no well knowledgeable extension workers that will translate same to the farmers, it will be a wasted effort.

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Ikani said the activities of the extension workers would similarly be enhanced when there is a law backing their mode of operations

In a remark, the Country Director, WOFAN-ICON2 Project, Dr Salamatu Garba who expressed happiness that the bill has passed its first reading at the House of Representatives said about eight sessions of meetings have been held in the drafting of the bill to ensure that all agriculture stakeholders are carried along in the process so as to have encompassing law when the bill is passed into law for the development of agriculture.

She said the bill is aimed at ensuring that there is legal backing in defining the role of extension agents, the rights of farmers and other stakeholders with the ultimate goal of total success in the agriculture value chain.

‘’We want our extension workers to grow with the global trend considering the fast-growing population of Nigeria so that even the target development in the agric sector by the government at all levels can easily be achieved.

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‘’It is also a time to support our research institutes, we cannot achieve much if the institutes are not producing desired extension workers for us.’’

Similarly, during a panel discussion, the discussants called for political will to ensure the bill is passed into law and for the bill to contain how extension services can be public-private partnership driven for better agriculture development.

WOFAN-ICON-2 Project supported by the Mastercard Foundation is championing the legislation of the policy together with, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and other stakeholders.