EXECUTIVE Director, National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Ilorin, Dr Yomi Kasali, has lauded Nigeria’s breakthrough in Agricultural Sector under the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Kasali in a chat with reporters on Monday in Ilorin, the government empowered major Agric institutes to bolster their potentials for more innovations in Agricultural Sector.
He said the development was allegedly under-reported in many of the nation’s media, noting that it would be unfair if the breakthrough were left undocumented.
“At NCAM for instance, our seasoned engineers had in the last three years trained over 1,000 fabricators, about 10,000 women and 20,000 youths on how to design and use numerous agricultural tools and machines on subsidiary and large scale farming.
“This development and many others have led to more expansion in the field of farming across Nigeria. Our personnel had at this period in review, moved round the country, teaching farmers on modern techniques of large scale planting and harvesting of rice, cassava and beans. With the interaction we normally have with our sister organisations, the story is similar,” he said.
Among some of the designed works by the NCAM, he said are; Jab Planter, Cassava Lifter, Cassava Peeling Tool, Treadle-Operated Cassava Grater, Motorized Cassava-Peeling Machine, Motorized Sifter, Pelletizing Machine, Cassava Screw Press (Dewaterer), Kerosene-Fired Batch Dryer, Knapsack Sprayer, Discharge Multi-purpose Milling Machine, Modified Marumbi Maize Sheller, Hand Seed Planter, Manual Seed & Fertilizer Broadcaster, Seed TestaDehuller, and Maize Shellers (manual and motorized).
Others are; Modified Multi-Crop Thresher, Melon Sheller(Industrial and kitchen type), Small scale Oil Palm Processing Line
Melon Washer, Yam Dicing Equipment, Mechanical Horizontal Cabinet Dryer, Combined Cassava Grating/Chipping Machine, Chipping Machine, Communal Gari Fryer, Hammer Mill (with Cyclone), Hand-held Maize Cone-Sheller, Motorized Groundnut Decorticator, Tuber Washing Machine, Mixing Machine, Sifter with Lump Breaker and Palm-Kernel Cracker.
Kasali, while urging Nigerian farmers to join forces with the nation’s security outfits to frontally fight insecurity bedeviling farming across some Agric belts in the country, opined that the challenges are surmountable.
For the NCAM boss, agricultural sector in any third world nation, “Nigeria inclusive” till date, remain the largest employment field.
He therefore urged many states’ Governors, National Assembly members and Councils’ Chairmen in all the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria, to complement the efforts of the Federal Government by sponsoring more youths to the institute for modern training in major Agric techniques.
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