The Executive Secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Professor Garba Sharubutu has said that the recently inaugurated Agricultural Radio and Television services of the council would enable easy transfer of technological innovations from Research Institutes to rural farmers.
Sharubutu while briefing newsmen about media center for agriculture, noted that the council was stimulated by the notion that they only conduct research without getting through to farmers that need those researches.
The communication facilities were recently inaugurated alongside museum and electronic library at the Council’s headquarters in Abuja by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar.
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The ARCN boss explained that the Council needed enough airtime to be able to reach out to farmers across the country, noting that through the radio and television service, each research institutes will be able to bring the solution to farmer’s doorstep for improved productivity.
He explained that before the establishment of agricultural television and radio, the agricultural research system used to rely on either national radio or the commercial radio and television stations where they pay heavily because most of those stations are self-sustaining.
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“Even if we pay for airtime, the slot we will be given to each of the agricultural research institutes will be a maximum of one hour, and it will not be enough for us to express ourselves for the farmers to actually appreciate what we are doing.
“We are trying as much as possible to link up with NIMET for us to have ample time for them, the slot given to them on commercial radio will not be enough to warn the farmers across the country. We suffered production losses, we suffered post-production losses and these are issues that we need to bring to the fore for the farmers.”, Sharubutu said.
