Experts from Nigeria, 4 Other West African Countries Trained on Improvement Model of Agriculture

By: Michael Mike

The hope of increased yield, proper food production coordination, and sharing of experience among regional actors in the field of Agriculture brightens as the AGRHYMET Regional Centre in collaboration with Partners and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, has organized a 5- day workshop for experts from English-Speaking Countries on the SARRA-H&O Model, in Abuja, Nigeria Capital.

It should be noted that the AGRHYMET Regional Centre was established in 1974 as a specialized institute of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (abbreviated CILSS in French). This is a public inter-state institution based in Niamey, Niger with a mission to strengthen food security and increase agricultural production in member countries; it also contributes to improved natural resource management in the Sahel region, providing training and information to stakeholders and development partners in the field of agriculture.

Speaking at the workshop’s opening, the representative of AGRHYMET, Marshall Trawere, said the training was the fourth annual capacity-building programme strategically organized to improve Countries’ monitoring of the Agricultural campaign.

He said: “This workshop brings together 5 countries including Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone which are English–speaking countries.

“As you know, Sahelian Countries have been facing since 1973, an accelerated degradation of the environment and natural resources under the cumulative effects of recurrent drought desertification and human activities. This situation has led to a considerable reduction in productive potential, thus exposing the population to a precarious food situation.

“Thus, CILSS through the AGRHYMET Regional Center and with the support of technical and financial partners accompanies countries in the implementation and technical animation of the devices Early warning to provide regular and timely information essential for decision making in order to anticipate food and nutrition crisis. Among these arrangements for retaining the multidisciplinary working groups GTP), an Early warning system to identify areas and populations at risk of food and nutrition insecurity.

“As you know, national agricultural products are micro-economic, social and existential aggregates for countries and regions, for stability and food safety monitoring. This information allows our regional and national decision-makers to guide policies and strategies for self–sufficiency and food sovereignty. This is why it is very important for our national actors in charge of producing food and nutrition security information to have tools to enable them to achieve these objectives.

“This capacity-building training workshop on the SARRA-H&O model of crop yield monitoring and estimation is in line with our institution’s mission. It aims mainly at sharing experience with the national framework in the field of agricultural campaign monitoring by an agronomic model, hydrological monitoring, monitoring of water balance and crop yield forecast, and pastoral monitoring.

“This SARRA-H&O model which is a fairly dynamic agronomic model is currently at the forefront of production estimation models. It has been developed jointly by CIRAD and AGRHYMET Regional Centre for several decades. The model is being developed to take into account other crops that are important for the region, such as rain-fed rice, cowpea, groundnut, and tubers”, he said.

The AGRHYMET representative thanked the partners such as CILSS (NPFS), USAID through PRASSAR for their support of the organization.

Speaking also, Mr. Amu Anthony from the Department of National Programme on Food Security highlighted various efforts and strategic initiatives of the present administration in Nigeria aimed at ensuring national food security and called for concerted efforts in the use of modern tools and synergy among stakeholders.

In the same vein, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Prof. Charles Anosike who was represented by Dr. James Adamu, emphasized the importance of the workshop and urged participants to take advantage of the skill that will be provided at the training to improve food security in their various Countries and Agencies.

Cross section of participants at the workshop commended AGRYMET and its partners for the training and promised to make judicious use of the knowledge that will be gained to create the desired positive shit in food production in their countries.

Experts from Nigeria, 4 Other West African Countries Trained on Improvement Model of Agriculture