As ASN Conference opens in FULafia, Sharubutu, Abdul Rahman, Mbanasor call for modernisation, food security

The 57th Annual Conference and General Business Meeting of the Agricultural Society of Nigeria (ASN) has commenced with a thunderous call for researchers, experts and governments to improve agricultural production in the country.

The conference commenced at the Mallam Adamu Adamu twin lecture hall, Permanent Site Campus, Federal University of Lafia (FULafia), and the first person to make the loud call was the Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Professor Harba Hamidu Sharubutu.

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Sharubutu, specifically, called on researchers to do all within their power to develop agriculture in the country, saying that “we all have responsibilities to make our country better.”

He tasked the states and local governments to key in on the agricultural policy of the Federal Government, arguing that the era of working independently was over as far as agriculture was concerned in the country.

“Nigeria must achieve food security,” he said, adding: “Our country has the resources to achieve that goal.”

He challenged the nation’s lawmakers to make good laws on agriculture, pointing out that for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the top Federal Government functionaries “including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his vice, Shettima, chief of staff, Gbajabiamila and many others were legislators and, therefore, it will be easy to get good agricultural acts assented to by Mr President.”

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In his speech, Professor Jude A. Mbanasor, the President, Agricultural Society of Nigeria (ASN), decried subsistence farming in Nigeria, calling on the authorities to initiate the process to modernise agricultural system in the country.

He urged the government to work closely with the ASN with a view to improving the state of agriculture. 

He said that with his association’s members bustling with ideas, the ASN would welcome cooperation with the government to make Nigeria’s agricultural system effective, efficient and sustainable.

Mbanasor urged the government to make agriculture attractive to especially young people in Nigeria, saying that if well developed, the sector would employ many people. 

He called on the nation’s universities and agricultural research institutes to rededicate themselves to developing agriculture to make the country achieve its desire to become independent in the area of food production. 

Earlier, in his welcome speech, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Lafia, Professor Shehu Abdul Rahman, an agricultural economist, appealed to his colleagues to actively participate in the conference and make their contributions felt.

He thanked them for attending the conference, saying that without their participation the conference would not be successful. 

He said that although the government had crucial role to play to develop agriculture in Nigeria, the need for scholars to provide information, obtained from research, on how to achieve that goal cannot be overlooked.

Abdul Rahman said that it was important for all to join hands to take agriculture where it was supposed to be in our country.

The conference, attended by many scholars, administrators and students witnessed agricultural dance drama performed by the students of the FULafia Theatre and Media Arts Department.