Agriculture experts in Nigeria have advised policymakers and political leaders to ensure that development policies and programmes get to intended beneficiaries for necessary impacts.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a five-day training programme on human capital development in modern agricultural research for selected 40 staff of Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri on Monday in Ilorin, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), University of Ilorin, Professor Olubunmi Omotesho, said that the problems with most policies in Nigeria are that true beneficiaries will not get to feel the impacts.
Professor Omotesho, who advised the participants in the training programme to scale down the knowledge acquired during the training to the local farmers who are in villages as well as end users of the knowledge.
“Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri is training institute. So, we expect that the trainees here would cascade the training down to the local farmers.
“The problems with most policies in Nigeria is that true beneficiaries will not get to feel the impacts. We have elite-capture of many programmes and many policies of government. We’re hoping by the time we finish this training programme, we would have empowered the participants to be able to do a much better job. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. There’s always room for improvement. We must continually update our capacity. That’s the way to stay alive and be relevant”.
Talking about ensuring food security in the country, Professor Omotesho noted that food security should be everybody’s business.
“This is because food is something that we cannot do without. Food security is very important as one of the basic needs of every human being in terms of quality and quantity to survive”, he said, adding that the programme aimed to improve the capacity of the trainees to be able to contribute their own quota to the issue of food security, which is a cardinal aspect of the President’s blueprint.
Also speaking, the provost of the
Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri, Dr. Oluyemi Akande, said that part of the efforts of the institute to promote food security is the annual human capacity development for its workforce.
“Training is part of education. We don’t joke with human capacity development. That’s why we organize the training every year. We can’t play with agriculture. It’s our forefather’s occupation. We have to go back to it if we want to solve problems of food security.
“If we can solve problems of food security, almost all the socioeconomic problems in the country are solved. And that’s why we have to go back to agriculture. Present-day practice of agriculture is not same way as it was done before. We should do more with use of modern technology to revive agriculture in Nigeria.
“Part of our contribution towards ensuring food security is to organize this training programme for our staff. It’s multidisciplinary selection. The participants are not only agriculturists, but staff from account, audit, store and works department. We can’t do it alone. It involves everyone. And we have to work together to solve the problem. Food security affects everybody. Planning involves all staff of every department”.
The event also had in attendance the Kwara state commissioner for Solid Minerals Development and supervising commissioner for the Ministry of Works and Transport, AbdulQuawiy Olododo, among other notable personalities.
