Stakeholders underscore importance of agriculture extension officers, veterinary services for food security
Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have contended that agriculture extension officers, veterinary doctors, and technicians remain relevant today more than ever before in order to guarantee food security in Nigeria.
In their responses to a survey conducted by the newsmen in Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti on the imperatives of agriculture extension and veterinary service to ensure food security in Nigeria, the stakeholders said that the two services were now particularly important since Nigeria’s monolithic economy dependent on petroleum products was no longer sustainable.
The stakeholders also called on the federal and state governments to ensure adequate security for farmers in order to guarantee food security.
Dr. Femi Ojo, a senior lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, called on the government to employ more agricultural extension officers for more effective services.
Ojo said that during the first republic, agriculture was a mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, and a high premium was placed on agricultural productivity.
“We should not forget also that the major foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria at that time were basically from agriculture. Agriculture produced more than 70 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“Then, the South-West states were known for cocoa, the North had groundnut pyramids, and the South-East states had palm oil in high quantity and exported it to other countries.
“It was the earning from agriculture that the western government used to build Cocoa House in Ibadan and even the Obafemi Awolowo University le-Ife and other infrastructure”, he said
Ojo bemoaned theneglect of agriculture after the discovery of crude oil in the early 1960s and 1970s.
He said that in the 1970s, when the government still placed a high premium on agriculture, the government established farm settlements with the aim of developing rural areas in order to stop the migration of youths to urban centres.
“Former military heads of state, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, and President Shehu Shagari were commended for establishing laudable agricultural programmes such as Operation Feed the Nation’ and ‘Green Revolution.
“The farm settlement kept farmers and youths in the rural areas, but after the discovery of crude oil, attention was shifted from agriculture to oil revenue, white collar jobs and people started migrating from rural areas to urban centres”, he said.
Mrs. Adegbemisola Fayoyin, the Permanent Secretary, Osun Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, however, said that the state had been supporting farmers to improve production through its agricultural extension programmes.
In an interview with newsmen, Fayoyin said that the government still provided agriculture extension agents who educated farmers with innovative and trending research findings to improve their farms.
“The state is making all efforts towards extending some support to farmers in the area of seedling and other modern farm inputs for improved farming system .
” Also, necessary information needed in the area of pest and disease control, better livestock control and improved water management is made available to farmers”, he said.
According to her, the state government is also doing everything possible to ensure that agricultural extension loopholes experienced in the past were prevented.
In Ondo State, Mr. Abimbola Ogunyinka, Head of Agricultural Extension Technology, Federal College of Agriculture (FECA), Akure, has called on the government to employ more agricultural extension agents to enhance food security in the country.
Ogunyinka, who decried the low number of extension agents in the country, advised the federal and state governments to go back to the old practise where extension workers were actively involved in farming and gave necessary information to farmers and researchers.
He said that there should be a ratio of farmers to extension agents and noted that if the ratio was not balanced, there would definitely be problems.
Ogunyinka described extension agents as bridge builders between the farmers and the researchers, saying that the work of agricultural extension agents could not be overemphasised in terms of the availability of food in the nation.
Ogunyinka explained that extension services would help farmers get adequate and timely information about diseases or pests that could affect whatever they are producing.
“For the farmers to optimise their yield and potential, they need more information on how to improve their agricultural productions.
“Ultimately, if there is an increase in production, there will be an increase in food availability in the country.
“And if farmers follow the information of extension agents accordingly, it will result in good agricultural practises and improve the level of food availability in societies, communities, and the nation at large.
"The government has a major role to play in the area of food security by ensuring that farmers get the necessary input at the right time and in the right quantity,” he said.
Similarly, Mr. Gbenga Obaweya, Chairman, Ondo State Agricultural Commodities’ Association (OSACA), described agriculture extension services as crucial in the food value chain, stressing that “their services are vital to food security in any country.
"Agricultural extension services are very crucial to food security, but in Ondo State,, they are shortstaffed and underfunded.
“The staff are making efforts,, but they have great constraints, which include difficulty in getting to the field, introducing innovations, getting feedback, and and simulating research, among others,” he said.
Obaweya therefore called on governments at all levels to recruit agricultural extension officers, adequately train them for effective service delivery, and adequately fund their operations in order for farmers to utilise the services they provide.
In Ekiti, Mr.. Oludare Asaolu, the General Manager, Farm Settlement and Peasant Farmers Settlement,Ekiti Ministry of Agriculture, said that 30 additional extension officers were recently employed to strengthen agricultural extension services in the state.
He said the programme was being used to help support farmers with farm inputs like oil palm, cocoa, and cashew, among several others.
Asaolu said the recruited extension workers were already helping to capture the the data and profiless of all farmers and provide necessary support to them through the state government.
According to him, the government distributes seeds and seedlings to farmers in the state currently at a a 50 percent subsidised rate,, while tractors are hired at a a 25 percentcent subsidised rate.
He said that about 75 percent of farmers had already been captured under the arrangement within the two farm settlements owned by the government located at Orin-Ekiti and Gede, as well as six farm centres located at Eporo, Osin, Ipao, Eporo, Emure, Oke-ako, and Iyemero.
“The interested farmers pay a token of just N5,000 for an hectare to get allocated slots in those farm centres, which are managed by farm managers.
"This is why individuals who have an an interest in farming and do not have access to farm lands no longer have an excuse in Ekiti,” Asaolu said.
Also, the Programme Manager, Ekiti Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Mr.. Yakubu Oladele, said that agricultural extension outfits of the state ministry of agriculture had increased the capacity of farmers by providing them with information on new agricultural technologies and practises.
He said the sole aim was to boost agricultural productivity, income for farmers,, and sustainable agricultural development in the state.
Oladele said Ekiti State Agricultural Development Program ADP was one of the 36 ADPs in Nigeria, created for effective Agric revolution.
” We are operating here in Ekiti State with our operation headquarter in Ikole-Ekiti, with three zonal offices, in each Senatorial Districts”, he said.
He said the mandate of ADP was to train and visit farmers on their farms, teach them good agricultural practises, and maintain constant linkages with the National Agriculture Research Institute towards gaining experience in new technologies for farmer adoption.
"The use of the media—radio and television—for programmes like “Agbeloba and "Lahere has been quite helpful to boost agriculture extension programmes in the state.
“Village meetings, farmer field school, where farmers are aggregated together to learn, and farmer business school, where farmers are taught to be profit-making farmers, are in place and going on steadily.
"The Ekiti Farmers WhatsApp platform is also inaugurated for farmers to lodge complaints while solutions are proffered.
“ADP helps to implement donor-supported projects. These are projects from corporate or individual donors, or the Federal Government, helping to facilitate the training of farmers by the subject matter specialists”, he said.
He said that some of the major challenges faced in carrying out agriculture extension services include a lack of motorcycles for extension officers to access farmers in rural areas, a shortage of extension officers, and inadequate funding.
Biodun Ogunjobi, a popular farmer in Ikole-Ekiti, said one of the benefits of agricultural extension and veterinary services was to enhance food and livestock production.
Ogunjobi said that unfortunately,, the state government had not given many of these privileges to the farmers
He lamented that many of his livestock died two months ago as a a result of infection, and he was not financiallyly able to buy drugs for them.
Ogunjobi said if the service was put in place, farmers would gladly embrace it and benefit immensely.
However, the government said it recently recruited six veterinary doctors and 10 animal technologists to boost veterinary services in the state.
The Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Gbenga Odesanmi, made this known to Correspondents of the newsmen He said the newly recruited personnel were specifically engaged to take care of all categories of domestic animals, noting that the 10 animal technologists would assist the veterinary doctors in examining animals that are to be consumed by the public.
“Their major function is to help in having hygienic slaughter slabs across the 16 local government areas of the state. To inspect, monitor, and ensure healthy and hygienic animals are slaughtered for human consumption,” Odesanmi said.
According to him, the federal government and voluntary donors have been very supportive in this direction by providing various vaccinations for livestock and other animals that help boost veterinary services in the state.
Also contributing, the Deputy Director, Veterinary Services, in the Ekiti Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Adedamola Fasoranti, said that the recent recruitment of veterinary doctors and animal technologists in the state had tremendously improved veterinary services in the state.
He said that the recruitment of personnel had also enabled effective assessment of animals for consumption across the state.
Fasoranti, however, admitted that veterinary services in the state needed more functional clinics in the local government areas, noting that the available ones were already dilapidated and needed the government’s intervention and rehabilitation.
"We only have functional clinics at the zonal levels of the state, but they have to spread across the state.
"We also need mobility to perform effectively with warehouse clinics, while sophisticated equipment is also needed to perfect things”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to Gov. Biodun Oyebanji on Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Ebenezer Boluwade, has assured that the present administration will do everything humanly possible to ensure an all-season food surplus in the state.
He said that farm implements had been distributed to farmers to boost agricultural production in the state, adding that the government would intensify its support for farmers in the state.
Boluwade, who enumerated the items so far distributed to include water pumping machines, pepper grinding machines, poultry feeds, fish feeds, drugs, vaccines, fish fingerlings, day-old chicks, and knapsack sprayers, among others, said more than 500 farmers had so far benefited from the programme.
He said that the water pumping machines were purchased for farmers engaged in dry season cultivation of rice and vegetables, adding that hybrid maize and rice seeds as well as cassava stems had also been distributed to farmers in the state .
