NAN-H-6
Technology
By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria (Kaduna State), April 8, 2017 (NAN) Prof. Ambrose Voh (Jnr), Acting Executives Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) said the council established Technology Dissemination and Adoption centre to enable effective technology transfer in the agriculture sector.
Voh told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that agriculture was driven by technology and technology could only be generated through research.
“Agriculture is driven by technology and technology is generated through research.
“It is the Agricultural Research Institutes (IAR) that generate those technologies and most of them (technologies) remain on shelves where they need not to be.
“To get the farmer benefit from the technologies so generated, you need a veritable and robust agricultural extension system,” he said.
Voh stressed the need for proactive approach towards addressing challenges associated with keeping research technologies on shelves in Nigeria.
“If you go through the Agricultural Promotion Policy, also known as the ‘Green Alternative’, you will have an elaborate position to address the challenges of extension.
“At our own level at ARCN, we have provided technology dissemination and adoption centres for the adoption of our research technologies.
“We used such platforms at the adopted schools and adopted villages, based on the principle of making the technologies available to our students at secondary school level.
“This will enable the students see what is available; we also instill in them, the concept and dignity of agriculture at that early age.
“That is one laudable programme that can provide an avenue to recruit young men into agriculture and this is driven by technology and innovation,” he added. (NAN)
KLM/ASH/ASH
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