The National Assembly has assured of its commitment to continually appropriate enough fund to agricultural institutes in the country so that they would help in the diversification of the country’s economy to agriculture.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, gave the assurance during an oversight visit of members of the committee to research institutes in Ibadan, held at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan.
He said research institutes most especially agriculture institutes have important roles to play for the country to be self sufficient in food production, stating that inadequate funding could not but slow them down in doing their work.
Adamu maintained that with the current economic recession which has affected virtually every sector of the nation, no money would be too much to be spent on agriculture, insisting that a nation that cannot feed itself cannot develop economically.
According to him, the oversight visit was for the members of the committee to acquaint themselves on how the research institutes spend the money appropriated for them in the 2016 budget, stating that this would help in determining what would be appropriated for them during the defence of the 2017 appropriation bill.
He said, “We have no doubt in our mind that the agriculture institutes in the country have major roles to play for the country to be able to feed the people, thus the Senate is more than prepared to see that they are adequately funded.”
The Executive Director, IAR&T, Prof. James Adediran, lauded the committee for the great role it is playing in the development of agriculture in the country, assuring that the research institutes and colleges will continue to provide appropriate and efficient technologies to farmers, train farmers, students and other stakeholders in productive farming.