By Saheed Ibraheem
|
A Professor of Mass Communication and Media Technology, Lead City University, Ibadan, Prof. Samuel Babaleye has advised the Federal Government to adopt participatory agricultural communication with rural farmers to replace the top-down agricultural extension system.
Prof. Babaleye, who delivered Lead City University 14th inaugural lecture, titled “Participatory Agricultural Communication with Rural Farmers: Potential and Panacea for Food Self-Sufficiency and Food Security in Nigeria” said this would boost food production, exportation and guarantee sustainability.
He also recommended that practical agricultural science should be made a compulsory course in all secondary schools in the rural areas.
The don stated that “Nigeria has no business importing foods from other countries. Every dollar spent on food importation is an aberration because such funds go to empower farmers in other countries.
He stressed that stakeholders in the agric sector must work with rural farmers to ensure food sufficiency in the country and create a competitive market to improve farmers’ income.
He also recommended that government must encourage middle-men to work with farmers and support them with inputs, funds and processing inputs to boost food production.
“Agricultural communication courses should be introduced at the post-graduate level in the departments of mass communication in Nigerian universities and Polytechnics to build-up professional communication specialists in the agricultural sector.
“Government should take advantage of IITA and borrow from various basic and applied research findings with abundance of data available in the centre to support rural farmers to constantly step-up food production”, he recommended.
He noted that with food sufficiency, Nigeria would witness emergence of many food processing companies and creation of unemployment opportunities for youth.
He added that the abundance of raw and processed foods would naturally lead to food security and Nigeria could boost importation with excess food to other countries, “if he political will is there by any government in power.
