Research Council Advocates CBN Loan for Graduate of Colleges of Agriculture

The Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the Anchor Borrowers Program to graduates of the colleges of Agriculture in the country to enable them to remain in the field and use their knowledge to contribute their quarter to agricultural development in the country.

The Executive Secretary Prof. Garba Sharubutu made the call while presenting the agency’s scorecard to the Agricultural Correspondent of Nigeria (ACAN) in Abuja Nigeria’s Capital.

Prof. Sharubutu said graduates of the Colleges of Agriculture are well-grounded in the field and ready to impact the sector but lack the necessary financial support to continue in the sector thereby branching off to white-collar jobs.

“I have under my purview 11 colleges of Agriculture, and let us assume that these 11 colleges of Agriculture are producing 20 HND holders, so we’re going to have 220, now you have 220 farmers every year in this country, it is going to impact seriously”

“But the total number of Colleges of Agriculture we have in this country is 52 so if each of them produces 20 HND holders, what are we doing with this 20?

According to Prof. Sharubutu analysis shows that less than 30% of these graduates go into agriculture largely due to lack of funding and other needed supports.

“Why don’t we identify this graduate, who has parents, who has identity, who has certificates, who has locations and give them this money and monitor them. If we do that, at least out of 100 of them we would be able to get 60-70 that would remain with agriculture”

While sighting an example of the apprenticeship system practiced in some parts of the country that works, Sharubutu said intending farmers should be made to go through internships that would boost their knowledge of the sector.

“We have written a proposal, right now the proposal is on the table of the Minister. We create entrepreneurship centers in all our colleges of agriculture, which will serve as internship, let the graduates of agriculture go there and learn the trade

“So the proposal is there, we are trying to see how we would do in order to encourage people to go into Agriculture, and internship is the best method for us”, he added.

Research Already in use

On the issue of putting researches to work in the country; Prof. Sharubutu said the various research works in the various Agriculture Research Institutes have been put to use across the country particularly in the adopted villages, farms, and schools.

Professor Sharubutu said one of the major challenges the research institutes are facing is that off-takers were yet to buy into some of those research works.

He noted that the research institutes cannot continue to develop, and nobody comes forward to off-take them.

For Cocoa, Professor Sharubutu said the government released funds to the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN) to develop new varieties of the crop.

“Just last week, the Executive Director of Cocoa Research Institute was given a grant. The government has given a grant to develop Cocoa, and that was out of the observation that was raised”, he said.

For livestock, the ARCN boss said National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) has been making efforts to improve the milk and meat output of cattle in the country, but it has been faced with the challenge of getting the animals settled in one place.

“The research we are sponsoring right now, we are trying to improve on the milk production. The problem is that NAPRI attempted to do artificial insemination in order to improve the genetic material of our breeds in order to have higher-yielding milk as well as high-yielding meat.

“What is the problem? Artificial insemination has to do with getting the animals to stay in one place because you cannot artificially inseminate an animal that is hungry.

“So, you put them in one place, you flush them, when they come on heat, you inseminate them.

“Getting our people to stay in one place is a problem. What is our solution to it? We have keyed into the National Livestock Transformation Program (NLTP), and this is the best way to go, ban open grazing in terms of moving from one place to the other, and locate them (livestock) at a place”, he further explained.