Agricultural: Senate tasks ARCN on staff capacity building
The Senate has urged the Agriculture Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) to work towards repositioning the council in capacity enhancement of its personnel to deliver the mandate of training and research in agricultural sector.
It also urged ARCN to liaise with the Committee on Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Office of Head of Service to resolve issues on status of the ARCN as a research council given the reform Act passed by National Assembly.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Sen. Abdullahi Yahaya (PDP-Kebbi) made the call at an oversight meeting with research and training agricultural agencies in Abuja on Thursday.
Abdullahi said the ARCN should be repositioned to take its place as a proper research organisation in the agric sector and deliver on its mandate.
He said the ARCN must develop capacity of its personnel to adequately deliver on its mandate of research and training, to improve agriculture activities in the country.
“You need to make some adjustments so that the capacity of the institution will improve; so, liaise with the committee by coming out with a proposal, so we can engage the Minister of Agriculture and Office of the Head of Service.
Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC-Niger) in his submission, sought clarifications on the status of the council, given the passage of the ARCN reform act by the 8th Senate.
He said the passing of the act was designed to make the agency be at par with other research organisations in all ramifications.
He urged the ARCN to design a massive capacity building plan, adding that issues on implementation of the new ARCN act should be taken seriously.
“We can not have an ARCN that des not have capacity to supervise researches,” Sabi said.
Sen. Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi) said the ARCN should be repoisitioned properly for research.
He said emphasis should be placed on allocation of more fund to capacity building and researches.
He said current allocation of fund for training of personnel was small.
Earlier, Executive Secretary of ARCN, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, identified inadequate funding for capacity development of its personnel as major challenge in the discharge of its mandate.
He, however, said the council had begun the process of constructing a five story headquarters building to ensure smooth operations of activities of the council, adding that approval had been given by the FCT Development Control.
According to him, ARCN has also provided an electronic library with 10,000 books available for access by researchers on agric.
He said the council had also put in place a meuseum to archive agricultural research finding activities of the council, for historical purposes, adding that agricultural centres for training and research across the country were being established.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that research and training establishments that made presentations on implementation of their 2021 and 2022 budget included Nigeria Institute of Animal Science, Institute For Agricultural Research.
Others were the Federal College of Fresh Water Fishes New Bussa, Niger state; National Cereals Research Institute, and Nigeria Soil Science Institute.(
