The Federal Government has said it would review the curriculum of agricultural studies in universities as an effort to be at par with global recommended practices and to ensure food security.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, expressed this at a press briefing at the weekend in Abuja.
“We will review of existing curriculum for all fields of agriculture in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission (NUC) National Board of Technical Education(NBTE) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education towards the production of future agricultural graduates that are prepared for the next generation of agriculture (Agriculture 4.0),” he said.
He said the immediate priority actions till the end of 2023, which includes preparation for the next dry-season farming is to the certification of available planting materials for some food security crops in readiness for dry-season farming.
Other plans, he elaborated, would be to aggressively promote and prepare for dry season farming which commences from November this year.
He added that there would be implementation of the dry season Wheat production starting in November 2023 as part of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) projects funded by the African Development Bank.
Under the scheme, he said, the target would be to “produce wheat over a 70, 000 hectares across the wheat production zone of the country with an expected yield of 875,000 metric tonnes for our food reserve;
His words: “Blending of appropriate fertilizers to support this year’s dry season farming while making provisions for next year farming season well in advance;
“Providing Train-the-Trainer for extension agents involved in dry season farming in collaboration with wheat-producing States and other partners such as flour mills.”
