The Federal College of Agriculture (FCA), Moor Plantation, Ibadan, has attributed the rejection of food exports and wastages or losses recorded yearly on food production as a reflection of unprofessional agricultural practices by untrained individuals, calling for enabling environment for the operation of trained personnel.
The provost of the college, Dr. (Mrs.) Elizabeth Augustus, stated this while reacting to a publication by a news platform tagged ‘100 Years of Agric Colleges, yet substandard produce still persist’ , where the writer stated that exports were rejected due to poor performance of agric. colleges and institutes.
Agricultural training has an important position in agriculture development, food security and poverty alleviation and helps with the formation of relevant economic policies geared towards improving agricultural practices.
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Augustus noted that rejection of food exports was a result of residue of agro-chemicals in crops such as beans, maize, in the process of preventing pest infestations in storage by people who are not trained in such practices.
“Deliberate introduction of science to agricultural practice is expected to limit drudgery, optimise production and revitalise the agricultural sector. As much as we may agree that we are not where we should be in terms of scientific/innovative agricultural practices, we will equally admit that we are certainly not where we used to be.”
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She added that adequate awareness and adoption of technologies already developed by colleges and institutes of agriculture in the country can go a long way to combat problems bedeviling agriculture in the country.
According to her, some technologies developed locally with the intervention of colleges and institutes of agriculture like FCA Ibadan include plant-based pesticides, inert atmosphere silos, hermetic drums for grain storage without chemicals and use of other health-friendly preservatives.
