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FG launches a new Agricultural Institute

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By Okunloye Abiodun

The AMEDI initiative would enhance food security and more job opportunity.

To improve food security and provide job opportunities to young people across the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Development Institute (AMEDI) located in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State. Prof. Muhammed Sani, Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), gave the president a tour of the institute’s facilities, including its machinery and laboratories. As he showed the president around, Sani mentioned that it’s less than six months from the time the groundwork was laid until the institute was officially opened.

Sani reveals that this is the second time in just three months that the president has officially inaugurated NASENI projects and that the organization’s leadership and staff are grateful for the opportunity. He recalled within the president’s order that, as part of the twelve new Institutes authorized to be constructed, six additional Agricultural-Technology-based Institutes, one for each of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones, be built in 2021. He said that the agency he now heads, NASENI, has fostered a culture of rapid response to presidential orders, which helps justify the agency’s elevated status and expedite Nigeria’s move toward a manufacturing, expertise-based economy.

Many of the projects will also be implemented in other zones.

There are six similar institutions distributed around the country’s several geopolitical zones; he explained AMEDI in Lafia is the first to be completed. Sani further said that the institute was conceived with the intention of using scientific and engineering infrastructure to back up the president’s initiatives to ensure nutritional and food security in the country and for Nigerians. Because the country’s soil is different and has unique edaphic factors and topography, they need to make agricultural tools, machines, and equipment in Nigeria that can help farmers adapt to climate change while still being fully accountable and productive.

More so, the organization understands the Sustainable Development Goals and the nation’s priorities to end hunger and create good, gender-inclusive jobs for the young and women. As a result, he said, NASENI is committed to utilizing AMEDIs’ platforms to advance the condition of Nigeria’s agricultural sector, hence fostering the creation of new employment and wealth. When completed, AMEDI Lafia and many others would serve as a model for introducing more STI (science, technology, and innovation) into Nigeria’s agriculture sector, according to NASENI’s head.

The new institute will transform the country’s agricultural sector.

According to him, the institutes’ inherent capacities would guarantee that the NASENI system-wide acquisition of innovative and SMART manufacturing technology would be put to use in the design, development, assembly, and production of agricultural and food processing equipment for different classes of farmers. Also, the institute’s main workshop will be transformed into a SMART factory prototype that uses innovative technology to produce goods and provide services tailored to the needs of Nigeria’s farmers and agricultural landscapes. The institute’s experimental farm will be essential to teach farmers and agro-business owners how to adopt sustainable farming techniques based on land resource optimization models.

Furthermore, he explained that AMEDI has a Central Research Laboratory to back up the institute’s research operations throughout all of the value chains of the intended product lines. He stated that the institute possessed advanced machinery for producing fruit juices, milk, as well as other dairy foods and tomato products. He explained that all of the machinery in place serves a backward integration purpose and that the institute would be producing multiple, upgraded versions of the machinery for the advantage of farmers and the agro-equipment enterprises so that they can fulfil the nation’s growing needs.

One of Buhari’s legacies is the creation of AMEDI.

AMEDI is one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s legacies aimed at making Nigeria a centre and distributor of agro allied technologies, equipment, and machinery. Additionally, the project intends to make Nigeria self-sufficient in terms of food production while also creating long-term job opportunities for the country’s massive youth population. The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has invested billions of funds into the Agricultural Mechanization and Development Institute (AMEDI), which encompasses cutting-edge laboratories and machinery for mechanized farming and agricultural development.


Related Link

NASENI: Website

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