… to meet the nation’s food security challenges.
by Christiana Gokyo, Jos
Nigeria’s Senate Committee Chairman on Agricultural Institutions and Colleges, Simon Bako Lalong, has tasked the organisations under his Committee to ensure that they step up on their operations to meet the nation’s food security challenges.
The chairman said this during a meeting with heads of agencies under the oversight of the committee held at the National Assembly.
He said the Committee had earlier met with Minister of Agriculture and Food Security as part of its consultations aimed at strengthening the coordination of their mandates and ensuring they effectively contribute to the development of the agric sector.
He assured them that the Committee was aware of the prospects and challenges of their organisations and the funds appropriated to them overtime, which need to be improved upon.
Lalong noted that, the oversight visits to the 35 institutes and colleges for this budget year were suspended “due to logistic issues” but will be carried out next year.
Senator Lalong frowned at the absence of some heads of agencies and directed that they must appear personally at a later date to answer questions on issues relating to their mandate.
Lalong, who said the Committee was aware that they generate revenue through various operations, charged them to be more serious, as the Committee expects them to operate in synergy, not isolation, with the Ministry and the ARCN.
While presenting a brief on behalf of the heads of the agencies, Executive Secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, explained that there are 16 agricultural research institutes and a number of agricultural training institutions and colleges, which are doing so much in harnessing the agricultural potentials of the country, based on the endowment of the various regions of the country.
He said, while the institutes lead in the research, the colleges produce manpower that have done well in meeting Nigeria’s needs. He, however, said they have challenges of funding, brain-drain and poor infrastructure.
Other Senators engaged the institutions and emphasized the need to tackle funding of research institutes and colleges, poor infrastructure, translating research into tangible solutions and also ensuring that they are providing solutions to Nigeria’s food insecurity.