The Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Prof Garba Sharubutu, has appealed to media practitioners to go beyond just reporting agricultural issues to sensitizing farmers across the country on government programs.
Sharubutu who made this appeal in Abuja during a media and CSOs sensitisation program revealed plans by the government to introduce the Researchers-Journalists-Civil Society- farmers linkage.
While commending the recently launched National Electronic Extension Platform (NEEP), Sharubutu pointed out that agricultural research council is central to the all the programs being implemented by the current administration.
According to him, ARCN was established to advice government in terms of agricultural research, training and extension services saying the council is central to the implementation of NEEP, National Agricultural Department Fund, and Renewed Hope Agricultural Technology Adoption Programme (RHATAP).
The ES further called on the media and the CSOs to form a formidable force in the realization of the multi-disciplinary approach needed to achieving food security in the country.
Disclosing that the council has been working with a handful of practitioners to monitor their distribution of seeds, grains and fertilizer, he underscored the need to monitor how the the farm inputs are biting utilized.
The ES said: “That is why I emphasized on the journalists -NGO-farmers collaboration so as change the knowledge of farmers, advise them on what seed to plant, because the NEEP platform has all those information, however we need the media to take it to the door steps of the farmers.”
Sharubutu stated that the methodologies of agricultural extension, the conduits through which knowledge, technology, and Innovation flow from research institutions to the farmer’s field-must not remain static while the world advances.
He noted that the ARCN had deployed multiple innovative mechanisms to bridge the gap between the technologies or modern farming practices emanating from the Research Institutes and the end-users.
Sharubutu added that th Council also established an Agricultural Research Museum which serve as one-stop-shop for all the commercializable findings of the NARIS and FCAs.
