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The Federal Government has said it was set and poised to reposition the National Centre for Agriculture Mechanization (NCAM) to improve the agriculture sector to attain food security.
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, made the pledge on Monday while on a working visit to the Centre in Ilorin.
Sen. Abdullahi said to succeed in President Bola Tinubu’s food security agenda, mechanisation is key, and NCAM has the mandate for certification and mechanisation of machinery, equipment and devices.
”So, we need to reposition them to play that critical role because, what we have noticed before now is that a lot of farmers are being ripped off by service providers who brings machineries with claims that the machineries fail to do.
”And when a farmer with his meagre resources contribute to acquire an equipment, and it is not seving the purpose it was gotten for, you can imagine how frustrating that can be.
”Our focus is to ensure that NCAM will be able to take a look at every machinery and equipment coming in with a view to ensuring that it is seving the purpose it says it will serve,” the minister said.
He added that NCAM was an important institution in the ecosystem of the country’s agriculture, as such, a bill was already in the pipeline to among other things review agricultural laws in the country.
”This year we want to lay some solid foundation and we have some bills to be reviewed.
”Part of our focal areas is to review agricultural laws, either by amending or enacting new ones.
”This is because NCAM ought to be at the heart of our mechanisation efforts, because the certification and regulation role they are supposed to play will determine what farmers will get in the field,” Sen. Abdullahi said.
The minister however noted that post harvest losses was also one of the problems farmers faced, and that efforts were already on to reduce it to the barest minimum.
”We have post harvest losses up to 60 percent, but what we are looking at now is what can be done to reduce it.
”Both NCAM and Nigeria Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) have a role to play here.
”And we are going to do all we can to encourage them to serve because we want to bring in demand driven innovation and technology development,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, NCAM Executive Director, Engr Abdulgafar Kamal, among other things asked for the strengthening of the centre by providing equipment testing facilities and modern machine tools.
Engr Kamal also called for the establishment of outstations in the agro-ecological zones of the country to serve as outreach centres.
The minister also visited NSPRI and the Agricultural Research Management Training Institute(ARMTI).
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