By Grace Adetutu
The Senate Committee Chairman on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and Governor Samuel Lalong of Plateau State along with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammed Abubakar, in Abuja commissioned the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN)’s Communication Complex, radio and television stations.
The two-storey building complex, also has an e-library centre learning, agric museum, office blocks for the council’s staff.
In his opening remarks at the event, the Executive Secretary of ARCN, Professor Garba Hamidu Sharubutu, said the essence of the radio and television stations was to help farmers to access detailed information regarding various technologies developed by the nation’s agric research institutes.
He said this would end the era of research work just ending on the shelfs as more effort will be directed to reaching the farmers at the grassroots, adding that the establishment of the outreach centres and the idea of radio and television was to further expand the extension system to rural farmers.
Professor Sharubutu however, said while the agency was working to get the station both on Star Times and DSTV, the broadcast stations will be live on the internet pending the allocation of frequencies by the appropriate agency.
In his goodwill message, Senator Abdullahi Adamu said the Senate was working to strengthen agricultural institutions across the country with a number of bills some of which, he said, have been passed and await President Muhammadu Buhari’s assent.
On his part, Governor Samuel Lalong said with the reinvigorated ARCN and the commitment of the President Buhari to agriculture, farmers across the country will see the light in the sector.
“At last, we can say that light is coming to our farmers and darkness will soon depart from our agriculture sector,” he said.
Speakers at the event called on the federal government to make the agric research council a mandatory entry point for all interventions by international donor agencies as done in other climes.
The complex was named after Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
