HISTORY MADE; AS ACII HOLDS FIRST MAIDEN SUMMIT ON AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA.

HISTORY MADE; AS ACII HOLDS FIRST MAIDEN SUMMIT ON AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA.

An Ibadan based Non-governmental Organisation known as Agro-output Catalytic Impact Initiative, ACII on Saturday, 23rd November, 2019 at the Centre For Sustainable Development, Ibadan held its inaugural conference on Agriculture with the theme: “Making and Localising Agricultural Research Findings Work For Farmers Towards Sustainable Food Security.”

In her opening address, Miss Tomiwa Agbede gave an insight into how the agricultural-research based organisation has evolved over the years, acknowledging presence of sister research-based organisations and she concluded by reading out order of programme.

National Coordinator of the association,Malam  Muhydeen Giwa 

Mr. Godwin Atser, who represented Dr. Kenton Dashiell, DDG partnership for Delivery, (International Institute for Tropical Africa), IITA in his keynote Speech among other things highlighted the achievements of the institute to include: Putting an absolute end to Malnutrition and addressing the effects of climate change – such as droughts and flood which lead to dwindling farm productivity.

The agriculture expert further boasted that IITA is the largest research institute in Africa as one of the major landmarks achieved by the organisation is churning out research findings which have improved the production of African staple such as Banana; Cowpea; Maize; Cassava; Yam and many more.

He however commended the organisers of the summit for coming up with such a beautiful programme designed to address current national realities.

In his submission, Mr Stanley Nwachukwu who also represented IITA said that this is the right time for youth to explore the current realities in Nigerian agricultural sector to achieve financial freedom and generate employment opportunities, adding that outdated land tenure system, lack of storage facility, low level of irrigation development, limited adoption of research findings, technology and poor access to market are factors responsible for low farm productivity.

In his remark, the National Coordinator of the association, Muhydeen Giwa revealed that his resolve to establish ACII was informed by the fact that most agricultural research findings are not being adopted by farmers to boost farm productivity and achieve food security, assuring that ACII, with the support of other major research organisations have seen the need to fill the vacuum.

The convener thereby expressed delight at the massive attendance recorded during the conference, further imploring participants to put into practice knowledge acquired in the cause of the conference.