Pay attention to agric research, innovation – Sen. Abdullahi

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Dr.
Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, has advised Nigerians to take agricultural research and innovation seriously for sustainable success.
Abdullahi stated this recently at the second Feed the Future Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project second conference jointly organised by Michigan State University (MSU) and IFPRI’s Nigeria Strategy Support Program (IFPRI-NSSP), on Collaborative Research for Agricultural Policy in Nigeria recently in Abuja.
Feed the Future Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project is a USAID/Nigeria funded 5-year project that is been jointly implemented by Michigan State University’s Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics (MSU) and IFPRI’s Nigeria Strategy Support Program (IFPRI-NSSP) Speaking at the conference, Abdullahi said the conference with its theme was timely.
Saying: “I want to draw our attention to the fact that sustainable success requires that we pay attention to homegrown productivity increases among our farmers and other value chain actors.
This will require that we pay greater attention to our agricultural research and innovation system; which is not in the best of shape.” He further called on Nigerians especially experts in the agric industry to show interest in the policy making process of the National Assemble saying this will help shape law makers understanding of the sector.
In the closing session on Strengthening Further Collaborative in Research for Agricultural Policy, a group of agric expert panelists with substantial experience working on agricultural policy in Nigeria highlighted several collaboration effort in the sector that is already taking place.
The panel suggested measures that would further strengthen collaboration in agricultural policy research in the country, stressing that agriculture is a “team sport”.
It was also agreed that to improve collaboration in agric policy research, there was need for stakeholders in the sector to address issues challenging agricultural policy and its effectiveness in solving problems.
The panel chaired by Professor Placid Njoku posited that the private sector could fund research, reducing dependence on donors and the government for funding; stressing that research can be more collaborative if more interdisciplinary interactions are introduced.
The conference which featured three plenary sessions and policy roundtables focusing on food systems transformation and implications for employment and food safety in Nigeria; food security and nutrition challenges for agricultural policy, and strengthening further collaborative research for agricultural policy.
The conference also emphasised the need to prioritize and support young Nigerian scholars