National President of the Agriculture and Allied Employees' Union of Nigeria (AAEUN), Comrade Simon Anchaver, said that the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the last administration failed to yield results because stakeholders were not carried along.

Anchaver also tasked the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to focus more on mechanised farming by improving funding of the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM). He stated this in Ilorin during the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Trade Group forum in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. The president also paid courtesy call on the management of NCAM led by the Executive Director, Engr. Ike Azogu.

He said government should continue to look into funding Nigeria's foremost mechanisation institution considering the agricultural sector's strategic role in the 21st century agro-driven economy.

"The leadership at NCAM needs more encouragement and proper funding by the federal government to enable it record more successes and be able to help in repositioning the country's status on the food production index table among the comity of Nations.

"Oil prices instability and economic meltdown being experienced intermittently by even First World Nations is forcing global leaders to prioritise agriculture and our own President Muhammadu Buhari cannot afford to miss out on this juicy opportunity to revive agriculture so that it can be the new driver of our growing economy," he said.

In his response, the Executive Director of NCAM, Engr. Ikechukwu Azogu, thanked the visitor for exploring NCAM, saying his plan was to create an avenue for revenue generation as a way of building towards the future. He promised to sustain the current strides, noting that training and capacity building for members of staff would be considered.

At the ADP forum, the AAEUN president said: "It is a well-known fact that for decades, the agricultural sector has been neglected due to discovery of oil. Past leaders in the country had been making pledges with regard to revival of the sector but failed to achieve meaningful progress."

He urged the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to revive all the 37 Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) and also join hands with the state governors to adequately provide the requirements of the ADPs.

National Chairman of ADP Trade Group Forum, Comrade Jibril Abdul Nggada, said ADPs are the engine room for the attainment of food security in Nigeria, noting however that the ADPs were confronted with a lot of challenges which hinder their effectiveness.

The problems, he said, include poor counterpart funding and shortage of field staff.