Food Security: Nigerian Government to digitalise extension service delivery

The federal government says it has introduced the National Electronic Extension Platform (NEEP) to Nigerian farmers to strengthen agricultural service delivery in the country.

NEEP is a digital-based platform designed to enhance and effectively work with the National Agricultural Research and Extension System (NARES), and other relevant institutions in the sphere of agricultural extension systems.

Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, stated this at the National Agricultural Research Extension summit on Wednesday in Abuja.

The theme of the summit is:” Sustainable Agricultural Extension Service Delivery in Nigeria: The Role of Digital Technology”.

The minister said that the platform would augment the low extension agent-to-farmer ratio.

He said that the digital platform would further strengthen agricultural service delivery in the country.

” Farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector will have access to good and impactful agricultural information on a real-time basis.

” The platform is interactive, cost effective, and by-passes the risk of insecurity associated with extension service delivery in the country,” he said.

” Deliberations at the summit will fine -tune the strategies and efforts towards effective on-boarding of NEEP for the usage of Nigerian citizens,” he said.

Abdullahi said one of the major mandates of the ministry was to ensure food security.

He said this could be achieved by promoting various programmes and schemes that would enhance farmers’ production, and productivity of the present administration’s priority value chains and segments.

 ” The advent of technology continues to complement speedy realisation of this mandate hence the need for this summit.

” Accordingly, the ministry has deployed technologies to improve labour productivity through distribution of tractors for land preparation, planting and harvesting,” he said.

Also speaking, Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said that the role of digital technology was very relevant.

He said digital technology is expected to x-ray all the tools and capabilities that digital technology could provide to boost, and revolutionise agricultural extension service delivery in the country.

” We all know that extension service in our country has recorded low achievements over time.

” These could easily be traced back to the different periods where a variety of extension methods and approaches were adopted by government, where funding and the use of certain technologies played pivotal roles.

He said that with adequate funding and effective deployment of digital technology as encapsulated in the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) 2022-2027, greater results could be achieved.

Prof. Garba Sharubutu, Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) underscored the importance of the summit.

He said that the introduction of the digital initiative would herald a new epoch in knowledge dissemination, real-time farmer support, and evidence-based decision making.

 ” Extension to us simply means taking information from the research institutes or from where we are.

” And we have technologies that have developed right to the doorstep of the target population which are the farmers.

 ” The aim of which is to produce more food, healthy food, and of course to sustain livelihood in terms of economic fertility and sustainability in the country,” he said.

Earlier, Dr Deola -Tayo  Lordbanjou,  Director, Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Service, said the mission of the department was  to ensure increased productivity of Nigeria farmers nationwide.

” Today’s summit is a reassurance of our commitment to the realisation of these mandates and mission to our nation,” he said.

”  In this summit, we are pleased to introduce and soft-launch the NEEP as our additional effort to consolidate on the delivery of our mandates to our nation.

NEEP is a cyber-driven platform which integrates all stakeholders in the National Extension Service Delivery System.

”Its effort will complement extension agent-to-farmer ratio, minimize exposure of Extension Agents (EAs)  to risk of insecurity, provide extension delivery in a cost effective and timely basis,” he said.

The platform  would be formally inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu in May.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi