An agricultural expert, Dr Fadlullah Issa, has called for increased focus on extension services to boost the productivity of local farmers in the country.
Issa, a fellow of the Nigeria Agriculture and Extension Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
He said that the most critical of all the factors affecting food security of the nation was the dearth of extension services to farmers.
Issa said: “Inadequate extension services in the sector has crippled agricultural productivity, despite the resources we spend on research they do not get to the local farmers.
“Our research is meant to empower local farmers with the latest technologies so as to have high productivity and yield.
“The gap is that extension services have been grounded and this affects the productivity of the sector,” he added.
Issa said the moribund state of the various Agriculture Development Programme (ADP) in the country due to poor or no funding had negatively impacted food production.
“Even though we have so many ADPs, some of them have gone moribund, in a state of coma or completely dead.
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“We do not have an adequate number of extension agents, where we have, most of them are not well trained. There is meant to be a training and retraining of agents to impact farmers more.
“If farmers have good access to technology, good seed, and requisite knowledge, then their productivity will peak.
“Most of these issues are critical areas that could help to salvage food security in the country if properly addressed,” Issa said.
The agriculturist said that revamping agriculture from the rural development strategies would increase food production prospects.
“To address food security we must address our rural development approach. Are we really developing the rural areas?
“From our rural development strategies we can start to prevent food shortage and insecurity in the country,” he said.
(NAN)
