By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Bauchi State Commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Barrister Jidauna Tula has expressed delight with the recent presentation by the Nigerian Institute of Soil Science (NISS) to the state of soil testing kits which, he noted, would go a long way in boosting commercial agriculture in the state.
He noted that today’s farming has moved from its traditional method of subsistence to commercial, with a spur to drastically enhance crops production to ensure food security for the country.
Barrister Jidauna Tula who was represented by his permanent secretary, Yakubu Jibrin Abdullahi at a sensitization workshop for farmers and agricultural extension agents in Bauchi, stressed the need for farmers to know the status of soil they want to use for crops production.
“It is very important for farmers to know the status of soil they want to use, as soil is associated with acidity and a lot of nutrients. Most of the crops need the presence of nutrients in order to grow well and farmers are after yields and maximum production”, he said.
Tula explained that if the soil is properly studied, the farmer would know when to plant and the particular crop to plant on a particular kind of soil, and thanked NISS for its continued partnership with the North-East geo-political zone and Bauchi in particular in the quest to boost agricultural production.
The commissioner assured the workshop organizers that Bauchi would put inputs towards getting a more comprehensive policy that would go a long way in helping not only the North-East farmers, but entire farmers of the country.
Also speaking, the North East Coordinator of the Institute, Professor Saminu recalled that NISS had last week submitted the soil policy that has been envisaged for the country for which the institute requires the input of the workshop participants as stakeholders in the enterprise.
The coordinator said that one of the mandates of the institute is the promotion of agriculture generally through the provision of services, hence the purpose of the Bauchi meeting is to make available such important services that have been provided for the populace use.
Professor Saminu disclosed that NISS has developed a software christened “NISS Agro Software as an application in the google store that could be downloaded, saying the innovation is very good that can benefit scientists, farmers, policy makers, marketers, and so forth, describing it as multi-purpose application.
The Programme Manager of the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP), Alhaji Abubakar Jafaru Ilelah in a goodwill message, noted that the new application which is multi-purpose in nature when in use, would have one in touch of soil, crops, products, markets, scientists, agricultural extension agents, among others.
Alhaji Jafaru Ilelah expressed the belief that using the new application would solve the vacancy existing between farmer extension ratio in all the states of the federation, and commended NISS for the efforts for coming up with the new application geared towards promoting agricultural production and marketing.
