Japan has offered a $108 million to help drive Nigeria’s emergency food security.
Yuka Furutani, attache (development Cooperation and ECOWAS), Embassy of Japan in Nigeria, revealed this in her remarks at a demonstration workshop for digital extension service providers held in Abuja on Wednesday.
The event, organised by the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), in collaboration with Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), AGRA, Sahel Consulting and Africa Practice, recently launched an initiative on digital extension and advisory services, tagged ‘A Consultative Engagement Exercise for a Product Profile Design for Nigeria’s Public-Private Partnership Digital Extension Delivery System.’ It was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Bell and Melinda Gates-funded activity is an engagement exercise and scoping study that will be conducted in Oyo, Gombe and Kaduna states to identify and profile a digital extension delivery solution that addresses the specific needs.
According to Furutani, “The Government of Japan has consistently demonstrated its strong commitment to support food crisis response and sustainable agriculture production in Africa.”
She said, “At a Tokyo international conference on agriculture development, Japan and Nigeria signed the food security emergency support loan in April this year for approximately $108 million.
“Additionally, Japan extended the grant aid of approximately $4.2 million to enhance the rice seed production system in Nigeria in the same month. This demonstrates our unwavering commitment to Nigeria’s food security. We particularly recognize that these agriculture extension services play a crucial role in realizing food security and sustainable agriculture production,” She said.
“One such example we initiated is Japan’s collaboration with the Sasakawa Africa Association, funded by the Government of Japan. This project utilises a digital agriculture expansion service tool called Acropronto, developed by a Japanese company. Acropronto utilizes Japan’s extensive experience in agriculture infrastructure and its advanced technology.”
In his remarks, Godwin Atser, country director of SAA Nigeria, which is leading the project’s first workstream, said the Bill and Melinda Gates-funded activity is an engagement exercise and scoping study that will be conducted in Oyo, Gombe and Kaduna states to identify and profile a digital extension delivery solution that addresses the specific needs of SSPs, promotes gender equality, and enhances climate resilience in Nigeria’s agriculture sector, especially in the value chains of Maize, Cowpea, Cassava, Soya bean and livestock.
“We have lots of digital apps being developed today, which if we strategically engage farmers and protect them, we will be able to address the issues around extension. And if we are able to do that, it means that farmers’ productivity will increase. And if farmers’ productivity increases, then it means that when we begin to move a lot of the population out of poverty, recognizing that at least 70 percent of people in rural areas rely on agriculture.”
In his remarks, Deola-Tayo Lordbanjou, director of the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Services, said some studies conducted found that extension practice in Nigeria is dead, less effective, less impactful, and no longer sustainable.
He noted that in the early 80s, Nigeria recorded a higher number of extension service providers compared to now.
The Department of Agriculture and Extension is responsible for climate extension service in Nigeria, in terms of policy coordination, state coalition agreement, giving trust and direction and trying to the extension of politics in Nigeria.
he added that information is key in the agricultural sector. “And not just information, but advisory services. Someone needs to tell the farmer how better to grow his crops, when to plant them, how to plant them when to harvest, what the likelihood of a disease is, and what should be done.”
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