Nigeria’s leafing center for learning Premier Agribusiness Academy (PAA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to enhance food security in Nigeria.
The director-general of PAA, Francis Toromade revealed it during the signing ceremony conducted at IITS premises in Ibadan, Nigeria.
He stated that that agreement aims to increase human capacity development via practical impactful agricultural practice in areas like soybean, maize, yam, cowpea, cassava cultivation among others.
He said low technical knowledge of farmers caused low yield per hectare of soybean in the country.
He explained further that with the same size of farmland, South Africa generates 197 tons of soybean per hectare while Nigeria generates 0.97 tons per hectare which he linked to poor technical knowledge and farm practice.
Toromade is trying to leverage the collaborative agreement with IITA to bridge the gap between the private sector, the farmer, and quality research done in the institute.
He further said after the gap is bridged, farmers and other stakeholders will implement the IITA cutting edge research findings, increase yield per hectare and faring will be more attractive and profitable in the country.
IITA DDG partnership for delivery, Kenton Dashiell with the MoU, PAA, and IITA agreed to share information in human capacity development on the most impactful practices (MIP) on the core mandate of IITA crops that will have an effect on the private shareholders in the Nigerian farmers and agricultural value chain influencing increase in production, profitability for farmers, and food security in the country.
An information technology consultant with PAA, Ayo Oluwa Okediji explained the collaboration aims at influencing profitability and productivity in agribusiness making use of technologies and other innovative solutions to assist in proper transfer and dissemination of IITA research results into effective practice and policy across the agri-food value chain.
According to Okediji, the MoU will utilize the technical abilities of both parties to develop agribusiness and farmer profitability in the country stating that PAA is known for private sector agribusiness capacity building projects while IITA is known for its quality research in agriculture.
He stated that with the collaboration, more stakeholders in the agribusiness value chain can be reached and empowered through access to research results that are domiciled with IITA which can enhance the livelihood of farmers.
