ARMTI Encouraged Mechanised Farming for Sustainable Food Security
Mary Nnah
Stakeholders at the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), have urged Nigerian youths to be fully involved in agriculture and practice mechanised farming.
The institute stressed the need to fully go back to farming, noting that for any nation to achieve food security, the citizens and the private sector must be involved such that, when the government develops policies and programmes, the people drive them.
The institute explained further that sustaining mainstay Agricultural Culture profitably across generations – the ARMTI board of governors has embarked on a three-day summit to upskill and reskilled using technology to advance skillset in agriculture.
Noting that, “Agriculture remained the mainstay of the country’s economy before the discovery of oil in Nigeria”, the group insisted that the discovery of oil affected agriculture so much that people played down agricultural activities to the detriment of the nation’s economy.
On the other hand, they observe that what is heartwarming is the new craving to return to the farms to once more move up the country’s revenue in the face of dwindling global oil fortunes.
Perhaps, this development informs the new focus on commercial agriculture with the establishment of different funds to revive some of the moribund agricultural programmes.
The Executive Board of Governors and Management of Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute at the event stated that by focusing on mentoring, knowledge management, replication of systems, bridging generational gaps, corporate resilience, and mitigation strategies, the incumbents’ skills, and expertise were garnished with the intellect and aptitude required for developing and advancing their knowledge, and ability for trans-generational performance.
Also, the Executive Director of the Institute Dr. Olufemi Oladumi, said there is a need to improve rice production and other farm produce, adding that Nigerian youths need to go to the farm, not as labourers but engaged in commercial farming.
“Therefore, we are encouraging all Nigerian youths to join us so that we can make use of technology to advance farming whereby we can harvest, process, and develop our products, sell to other nations,” he added.
Oladummi who stressed the need to build human capacity so that the nation can move agriculture to mainstay added “Agriculture is now a business not just a past time thing but something that can generate income or money for the country.”
Speaking further, he said, “We want to increase the tons of food in our nation so that the issue of food shortage would be a thing of the past, and so that we would be able to be self-sufficient. We want to produce the right type of tons of food, the right quantity and quality of food to improve the economy of this country.”
He added that to mediate the clashes of farmers and herdsmen, “we sent team members to have discussions with them on how they can co-habit, explaining and educating them that they complement each other.”
“So when their crops are in production they won’t bring their cattle to graze it. This would enhance the food supply. During Covid-19 we produce more even when we had to restrain farmers during the lockdown.
It was because we introduced some mechanisms into the farming system. The farmers were allowed to produce and equally sell, to the market. The challenges some of them might have is how can they process but we have introduced some trenching facilities for rice production and storage equipment. We have improved on the quality and when you travel around you see those leftovers poured on the road, that is a sign that more foods would be produced, what we should be looking at is the affordability of these foods to the consumers.
We need to create and review policies that can guarantee food security.
The training is for acquaintance with modern agricultural systems and facilities.
We want to completely change the farming system of the nation towards making agriculture a business and not a part-time thing not only for farmers but as stakeholders, involved with the entire process including the consumers.
The Board of Agricultural Research and Management Training Institute, Chairman Donatus Nwamkpe expressed optimism that the workshop would change the face of agriculture training, saying it would be a step in the right direction for more awareness, lectures, training, and future curriculum developers.
Nwamkpe stated that the training is important because, with the new trends of technology in agriculture and the agricultural revolution, there was a need for a new policy drive.
Nwamkpe urged all stakeholders to support the demand-driven approach toward changing agriculture practice and encourage value addition sustainably.
Moreso, community policing, is another way we are using to tackle food security. We are maintaining a cordial relationship between farmers and herdsmen for peaceful cohabitation.
He noted that the rich family goes into agriculture, so it is not a class thing. What the youths are complaining about is that they don’t want to use local hoes and cutlass so they want us to bring better materials that are why we are trying to step up their perception of agriculture. Nwamkpe added that the institute intends to make Agriculture attractive for youths In Nigeria. He urged all stakeholders to make Agriculture attractive for young people to encourage participation in national development.
He noted that 60 per cent of farmers in Nigeria are aged people, noting that if nothing was done, nobody will be left to continue in the future and that the youths should pitch on commercial farming to gain employment.
