Senate has urged the Agriculture Research Council of Nigeria(ARCN) to work toward repositioning the council in capacity enhancement of personnels to deliver its mandate of training and research in agric sector.

It also urge ARCN to liaise with Senate to engage Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Office of Head of Service to resolve issues on status of the ARCN as a research council,given the reform Act passed by National Assembly.

Chairman Committee on Agriculture,Sen.Abdullahi Yahaya(PDP-Kebbi) made the call at an oversight meeting with research and training agricultural agencies in Abuja on Thursday.

Abdullahi said the ARCN should be repositioned to take its position as a proper research organisation in the agric sector and deliver on its mandate.

He said the ARCN must develop capacity of its personnela to adequately deliver on its mandate of research and training to improve agriculture activities in the country.

“You need to make some adjustments so that the capacity of the institution will improve, so liaise with the committee by coming out with a proposal
, so we can engage the Minister of Agriculture and Office of the Head of Service.

Sen.Sabi Abdullahi (APC-Niger) in his submission sought clarifications on the status of the council, given the passage of the ARCN reform act by the 8th Senate.

He said the passing of the act was designed to make the agency be at par with other research organisations in all ramifications.

He urge the ARCN to design a massive capacity building plan, adding that issues on implementation of the reformed ARCN act should be taken seriously.

“We can not have an ARCN that do not have capacity to supervise researches,” Sabi said.

Sen.Sam Egwu,(PDP- Ebonyi) said the ARCN should be repisitioned properly for research.

He said emphasis should be placed on allocation of more fund to capacity building and researches,saying that allocation of fund for training of personnel was small.

Earlier, Executive Secretary of ARCN,Prof Garba Sharubutu,
identified inadequate funding for capacity development of its personnels, as major challenge in the discharge its mandate.

He, however, said the council had begun the process of constructing a five story headquarter building to ensure smooth operations of activities of the council,adding that approval has been given by development control.

According to him, ARCN has also provided an electronic library with 10,000 books available for access by researchers on agric.

He said the council has also put in place a meusum to archive agricultural research finding activities of the council, for historical purposes, adding that agricultural centers for training and research, across the country were been established.

The Observer Newspaper reports that other research and training establishments that made presentations on implementation of their 2021 and 2022 budget includes,Nigeria Institute of Animal Science,Institute For Agricultural Research.

Others are the Federal College of Fresh Water Fishes,New Bussa, Niger state,National Cereals Research Institute, Nigeria Soil Science Institute, among others.