ARCN sets up outreach centres

Speaking during the handover ceremony of one of the centres in Kawu community and Government Secondary School Kawu in Bwari area council, Abuja, the Executive Secretary, ARCN, Professor Baba Yusuf Abubakar, said the programme will engage 5,000 farmers every year in the participating area councils.Represented by Director of Coordination and Technical Research of the council, […]

Speaking during the handover ceremony of one of the centres in Kawu community and Government Secondary School Kawu in Bwari area council, Abuja, the Executive Secretary, ARCN, Professor Baba Yusuf Abubakar, said the programme will engage 5,000 farmers every year in the participating area councils.
Represented by Director of Coordination and Technical Research of the council, Professor Olusola Oni,the executive secretarysaid the research centres will provide effective linkage between extension, research and farmers; and enable researchers to be aware of the social and economic environment in which their developed technologies will be applied.
“The programme is impacting on the FCT through the dissemination of proven agricultural technologies and innovations from the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) to farming communities and secondary schools in Abuja Municipal, Bwari and Kuje area councils,” Professor Abubakar said.
Handing over the centres to the community and the school, the coordinator of the programme, Dr (Mrs) Ronke Alao, stressed that the inclusion of secondary schools in the programme is to spur students’ interest in agriculture and to increase the application of improved technologies in their household farms.
Speaking to the gesture on behalf of farmers in the area, leader of the farmers, Sarkin Noma Salisu Galadima,commended ARCN for considering Kawu village, adding that farmers in the community will take advantage of the centre to improve their farming activities.
The programme is in collaboration withthe Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria and West African Productivity Programme in Nigeria (WAAP-Nigeria) with financial support from the World Bank.