The Ogun State Government and agricultural experts have urged farmers across the South-West to embrace digital innovation and data-driven farming practices to boost agricultural productivity, address production challenges and strengthen food security.

The call was made during a 2-day training and Steering Committee meeting of the South-West Research Extension-Farmers-Input Linkage System (SW-REFILS-IAR&T), organised by the Ogun State Agricultural Development Programme (OGADEP) in collaboration with the State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Abeokuta.

The programme, themed "Strengthening Research Extension, Farmers Input Linkage Through Climate-Smart Agriculture and Digital Innovation for Agro-Industrial Transformation," brought together government officials, researchers, agricultural experts and other stakeholders to explore innovative approaches to agricultural development.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Bolu Owotomo, who was represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Alhaji Siraj Fashola, described the theme as timely, noting that digital innovation had become essential to achieving sustainable agricultural development.

He said the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun remained committed to ensuring food availability and security in the state, while encouraging universities and research institutions to make their research findings accessible to farmers, stressing that stronger collaboration between researchers and agricultural practitioners was necessary to promote sustainable agricultural development.

Owotomo also assured participants that the state government would sustain its support for the training and retraining of agricultural extension officers in modern farming techniques, adding that the government would continue to provide mobility support for extension workers and facilitate farmers' access to land to enhance agricultural production across the state.

Also speaking, the South-West Zonal Coordinator of SW-REFILS-IAR&T, Prof. Festus Ajayi, described the initiative as a Federal Government project designed to promote agricultural development and improve agribusiness across the country, particularly in the South-West, saying sustainable food production in Nigeria required the collective efforts of government, research institutions, farmers, agricultural input providers and other stakeholders.

Ajayi therefore called on governments at all levels and major players in the agricultural sector to strengthen the initiative through adequate technological and financial support.

Earlier, the Acting Programme Manager of OGADEP, Mrs. Abiola Adewole-Sobukola, said the training was designed to strengthen agricultural development across the South-West through improved research, extension services and farmers' access to relevant agricultural inputs, emphasising that continuous research and access to accurate agricultural data were essential to understanding changing market dynamics and improving the agricultural value chain.

Sobukola urged farmers to embrace smart digital technologies, noting that their adoption could significantly improve productivity and increase harvest yields, disclosing that the Ogun State Government had demonstrated its commitment to agricultural development through the employment of 103 agricultural extension agents to strengthen information dissemination and provide technical support to farmers.

She charged participants to pay close attention to the training and apply the knowledge acquired to improve their understanding of mechanised farming, smart agriculture and modern technological practices.

According to her, the initiative was aimed at strengthening agricultural development across the six South-West states through improved extension services and effective collaboration among relevant stakeholders.

Delivering a paper titled "Smart Intelligent Agricultural Practices: Harnessing Computing Technologies for Enhanced Food and Nutritional Security in Nigeria," the Dean, College of Computing Sciences, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Prof. Oluwasefunmi 'Tale Arogundade, described agriculture as fundamental to rural livelihoods, employment generation and national economic development.

She urged farmers and other agricultural stakeholders across the South-West to embrace modern technology, digital innovation and smart agricultural practices to address challenges confronting food production and improve productivity, advising farmers to move beyond conventional methods that rely largely on intuition, indigenous knowledge and visual observation of crops, and adopt technology-driven approaches for monitoring soil conditions, managing livestock, nurturing seedlings and predicting weather patterns.

She noted that despite the availability of vast arable land across the South-West, agricultural production continued to face persistent challenges requiring innovative and technology-driven solutions.

According to her, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has identified digitalisation and agricultural automation as important opportunities for improving productivity, resource efficiency and environmental sustainability, stressing the need for government to bridge the digital knowledge gap by equipping farmers with relevant technological skills and creating an enabling environment for the adoption of modern agricultural practices.

Arogundade maintained that Nigeria's agricultural sector could experience significant transformation by shifting from conventional farming methods to data-driven, predictive and increasingly automated agricultural systems, adding that smart agricultural practices would improve efficiency, reduce production losses and increase profitability for farmers across different scales of production.

Also present at the event were the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Rotimiolu Akinlesi; the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Mrs. Funmi Baker; and other government officials and agricultural stakeholders.