Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has launched the nation’s first harmonised extension manual and national agricultural extension policy in a move to improve delivery of agricultural extension services to farmers.
The manual, according to the minister of state, agriculture and food security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, focuses on employing the right extension techniques to efficiently disseminate and deploy agricultural innovations and technologies to end-users using appropriate extension methods.
Abdullahi who spoke at the opening of the 6th Africa-wide Agricultural Extension Week in Abuja noted that the new manual will be of great benefit to extension administrators, subject matter specialists, including extension agents who will deliver service to farmers along agricultural value chains.
He said the National Agricultural Extension Policy aims to maximise resource utilisation to support sustainable agriculture and the nation‘s socioeconomic development by offering all stakeholders, including youth, women, and individuals with special needs, a pragmatic, effective and efficient demand-driven pluralistic, ICT-enabled, and market-oriented extension service.
The theme of this year‘s African Extension Week is „Harnessing Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in Scaling Regenerative Agriculture and Nature Based Solutions for Food System Transformation in Africa.“
The minister noted that the federal government has recognised the huge potentials of agriculture as a key sector in driving the nation’s economy and as a tool to fight unemployment, hunger and poverty and has sought to restructure the economy from unnecessary borrowing to finance government activities as well as create jobs and achieve economic growth.
„Our resolve is to develop the agricultural sector towards the attainment of the objectives of SDGs especially those of zero hunger and to improve agriculture and rural productivity. Nigeria current plan is to achieve self-sufficiency in food production and reduce dependency on food imports“, he said.
