President Bola Tinubu unveiled a strategic initiative aimed at enhancing food and nutrition security by transitioning fuel irrigation pumps to renewable energy.
This move is designed to alleviate the impact of the soaring cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, on farmers.
Represented by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Tinubu articulated this plan during a keynote address at the inauguration of the 6th Africa-Wide Agricultural Extension Week (AAEW) in Abuja.
The event’s overarching theme is ‘Harnessing Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in Scaling Regenerative Agriculture and Nature-Based Solutions for Food System Transformation in Africa.’
Acknowledging the challenges posed by the rise in petrol prices, Tinubu highlighted the government’s awareness of these hardships. As a proactive measure, he announced the introduction of solar-powered irrigation pumps, emphasizing their accessibility to a designated cluster of farmers poised to benefit from this sustainable energy solution.
He said: “Agricultural extension plays a critical role in bringing relevant and improved technologies developed by National Agricultural Research Institutions (NARIs), inputs suppliers and marketers to farmers.
“And to strengthen Agricultural Extension Delivery Services in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has put together the first-ever Harmonized Extension Manual in Nigeria and National Agricultural Extension Policy.
“The Harmonized Extension Manual focuses on how to effectively disseminate and deploy agricultural innovations/technologies to end-users using appropriate extension methods.
“The manual will be of great benefit to extension administrators, Subject Matter Specialists, Extension Agents as well as farmers along the agricultural value chains.
“The National Extension Agricultural Extension Policy seeks to provide a pragmatic, effective and efficient demand driven plurastic, ICT-enabled and market oriented extension service to all stakeholders including youths, women, and people with special needs to optimally use resources to promote sustainable agriculture and socio-economic development of the country.
“Agriculture must be market oriented and move away from the subsistence farming been practiced by our smallholder farmers.
“In achieving this the government has come up with programmes such as national agriculture growth scheme-agro-pocket where millions of farmers are supported through training on good agricultural practices, certified inputs such as improved seeds and organic and inorganic fertilizers and irrigation equipment at highly subsidized prices to enhance their production, increase productivity and ultimately higher incomes to the farmers.
“We are not unmindful of the fact that the cost of fuelling an irrigation pump today has increased. And so we are looking in the way of renewable energy as an alternative to bring down the cost. So the irrigation pumps we are talking about now, is those ones that will be driven by solar power.
“In some instances now we are looking at electric ones, where we can have solar charging points where farmers can charge these irrigation pumps, use it for three to five hours before charge. But this will be done only in those areas where there are clusters of farmers who will be able to tap in from that.
“What farmers need now is technologies that are simple, understandable and are available over multiple channels. The moment the flow of information is not happening, we won’t make impact.
“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.”
However, he berated the lack of synergy and cooperation with agricultural research institutes, lamenting that they were not sharing their technologies and everything was on the ‘shelf’.
“One thing I have seen over the years is that there’s always disconnection between people who ought to be friends, disconnection between people who are supposed to be working together. In all honesty the Zonal Agricultural Research Extension Liaison Services are not where they ought to be, it is what I know and it is what I am not debating about.
“The various research institutes are not sharing their technology, everything is on the shelf. For us what we will like to propose is for us to go back to that same demand-driven agricultural research development agenda.
“What we are running is supply driven research and this is why they will continue to remain on the shelf. This is one of the areas we intend to bring dramatic change.”
Meanwhile, he maintained that, “For us in the Ministry, we want to do a comprehensive stakeholder analysis and mapping as the very first foundation upon which we want to base all our future actions.”
