Tinubu who was represented by the Minister of State Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, disclosed a keynote address while declaring open the 6th Africa–Wide Agricultural Extension Week , with the theme ‘Harnessing Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in Scaling Regenerative Agriculture and Nature Based Solutions for Food System Transformation in Africa’ in Abuja.
“And to strengthen Agricultural Extension Delivery Services in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has put together the first-ever Harmonized Extension Manual in Nigeria and National Agricultural Extension Policy. “The National Extension Agricultural Extension Policy seeks to provide a pragmatic, effective and efficient demand driven plurastic, ICT-enabled and market oriented extension service to all stakeholders including youths, women, and people with special needs to optimally use resources to promote sustainable agriculture and socio-economic development of the country.
“What farmers need now is technologies that are simple, understandable and are available over multiple channels. The moment the flow of information is not happening, we won’t make impact. “One thing I have seen over the years is that there’s always disconnection between people who ought to be friends, disconnection between people who are supposed to be working together. In all honesty the Zonal Agricultural Research Extension Liaison Services are not where they ought to be, it is what I know and it is what I am not debating about.