A Nigerian-born, but South-Africa based agriculture expert, Dr Patrick Adebola, has shed more light on some of the problems confronting the nation’s agricultural sector, saying it takes someone with deep knowledge who has travelled round the world to appreciate the fact that Nigeria is a naturally endowed nation suffering in the midsts of plenty.

The expert while narrating  his experience in the practice of agriculture in South-Africa and why there is a continous brain-drain in Nigeria said, “it is a pity that our country is loosing many of its good hands and best brain to other nations  of the world”.

He said if some anomalies were not corrected to create a conducive atmosphere for excellence,Nigeria may continue to jump on the same spot. Although he described Nigeria as a great nation with abundant human resources, but said most of the problems militating against our progress are “anthropogenic” in nature meaning, they are self-imposed.

Dr Adebola who was recently in the country briefly said, “having stayed in South-Africa for years and having been at one of the South-Africa leading agricultural research institutes, I now appreciate the fact that  Nigeria indeed has serious agricultural problems.”

On why he hold such a view,he said,“the major problem which I have noticed has to do with the lack of political will to make positive changes. We need to adopt mechanised farming  because people want foods to be cheap and surplus. But is it possible to get cheap food commodities in the market if a nation is not ready to adopt modern practices or mechanised farmin?,” he asked.

He further posited that  many farmers are still using cutlass and hoes to practice farming  because  prices of modern farm machineries and equipment like tractors, harrower, plougher,tractors,flash dryers, etc, are still on the roof top.

Dr. Adebola, who is presently the Programme Manager cum plant breeder at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), South Africa, told Tribune Agriculture that government’s policies are not encouraging large scale farming because farming system in Nigeria is still at the low ebb,adding that it is still at the family consumption level or what I could called a domestic types of farming.

The ornamental/vegetable expert, who is also the Deputy Director at ARC, South-Africa,however,urged the government to give direct incentives to practising farmers without giving room for middlemen to interfere. The acticvities of middlemen, he stressed, is another major stumbling block for agricultural development in the country.

In his words, “it is true some farmers are slow to the adoption of modern ideas or practices, but I can tell you that with proper and adequate dissemination of information to farmers, many are eager to try new ideas provided such new innovations would add value to them and boost their income.

He said, “there is a problem of insufficient number of extension officers that should work with rural farmers,stressing that improper  dissemination of proper and benefiting information to farmers is affecting the development of agriculture in the country. High cost of technology may be another factor for the non-embrace or adoption of modern technologies.”

Speaking about the roles of farm equipment fabricators and machinery technologists in the food security programme of the country, Adebola said the question to ask Nigeria technologists and equipment fabricators, and most importantly, agriculture engineers should be: “How many agriculture engineers or farm equipment technologists were exposed to modern farm equipment or or technologies during their academic training  either in Colleges of Agriculture, Polytechnics or Universities?

“I want to be fair to many of them by saying many of their members don’t have adequate exposure or practical training on modern farm machines. Honestly, without fear or favour, agriculture engineers in Nigeria are good but are too theoretical. This is a profession I respect so much, this is one profession whose practitioners should occupy the driver’s seat in the nation agricultural development programmes, this is a profession whose practitioners hold a major key in preventing post-harvest wastages in order to guarantee food sufficiency.

This is a profession whose members can help to find a lasting solution to our agriculture problems, but many of them are not doing much to help. They are too theoretical, unlike their counterparts in other nations of the world. If you don’t believe me, kindly mention or name just five agric-engineering workshops in any city in Nigeria. Kindly give me the names of reputable or well-know tractor repairing workshops or farm equipment fabricating company or workshop in Lagos or Ibadan. Yet, we are talking of solving the problem of post-harvest loss. This is not my personal opinion, but the opinion of many others. It is very sad,” he lamented.

On the way out, he begged the government to help the nation agriculture engineers by exposing them to more sophisticated agriculture equipment and modern farm machineries, stressing that, “with due respect, how many agriculture engineers or equipment fabricators can come out, beat his/her chest and say he/she has seen combine harvester, flash driers or other modern  equipment before.”