In a bid to boost farmers productivity and ensure Nigeria attain self-sufficiency in food production, Premier Agribusiness Academy has debut into the Nigerian agricultural sector. In a chat with journalists during the unveiling, Francis Toromade, director general, Premier Agribusiness Academy said that to make agribusinesses profitable farmers must acquire cognitive skills and essential knowledge needed to boost production. Toromade stated that farmers need to build their human capital development, marketing and sale skills as well as logistics and supply chain management through continuous training and learning process. He applauded the Federal Government for its food self-sufficiency initiative and move towards diversifying the economy through agriculture, saying that no nation can survive without feeding itself. He however noted that, for Nigeria to realize this vision to be realised there must be significant increase in local food production cutting across livestock, crop and aquaculture. According to him, agriculture has the ability to contribute significantly to the overall development of the nation’s economy if effectively and efficiently managed. He explained that, there is a huge difference between agriculture and agribusiness while stressing that, what makes agriculture a business is its ability to generate profit. He further said that, until farmers begin to see agriculture as a business venture and invest in acquiring the managerial knowledge needed to boost production and ensure profitability, self-sufficiency in food production for Nigeria may remain a mirage. “The key is agribusiness. It is not enough to know the technical aspect of agriculture or study agriculture in school. To become successful and profitable in agriculture, there is need for farmers to acquire knowledge of the business side of agriculture which is what Premier Agribusiness Academy offers,” Toromade said. “All over the world, people are no longer talking about agriculture; the stress is on agribusiness because that is where profit lies,” he further said. “For farmers to be profitable, they need to acquire knowledge of strategies to market their products effectively manage their human, capital and material resources. All these competences are what the academy offers in its courses. According to him, the vision of Premier Agribusiness Academy is to transfer well researched and innovative competences required for sustainable investments in non-allied industries of the agricultural sector. Toromade who is also the business development consultant for Rome Business School and a facilitator in Lagos Business School revealed that, the institution offers short executive courses, poultry management courses, aquaculture management and consultancy services to farmers. He urged farmers to take advantage of the academy’s forthcoming training on “Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills for Decision Making” coming up on the 5th of Oct, 2019 at Sheraton Hotels and Suites, Ikeja, Lagos as an opportunity to further increase their knowledge in agribusiness management. He revealed that, the academy is willing to collaborate with major players in the agribusiness value chain both locally and internationally.

L to R ; Sore Sougrynoma Zainatou, head – capacity development office; Toromade Francis, director-general, Premier Agribusiness Academy; Kenton Dashiell, DDG – partnership for delivery, IITA and Frederick Schreurs, CEO, IITA business incubation programme, IITA Ibadan during the MoU signing on Human Capacity Development at IITA director general’s office recently in Ibadan. Premier Agribusiness Academy (PAA), Nigeria’s leading centre for learning has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to drive food security in the country. Francis Toromade, director-general, Premier Agribusiness Academy made this known during the signing ceremony which took place at the premises of the International Headquarters of IITA in Ibadan recently. According to him, the purpose of the agreement is to increase human capacity development through practical impactful agricultural practice in the areas of maize, cowpea, soybean, yam, and cassava cultivation among others. “What PAA will do as part of this partnership is to make sure that all the commodities and crops that are the focus of research in IITA like cassava, maize, soybean, and yam among others get private sector awareness and patronage,” Toromade said in a statement. “Some stakeholders within the agricultural industry are not aware of what IITA is doing in terms of research and how it can impact their farming practice,” he added. Read Also: Agric lending at 5-year high fails to reflect in food prices Toromade blamed the low yield per hectare of soybean in Nigeria on farmers’ low technical knowledge. He further explained that, with the same farmland size, South Africa generates 1.97 tons of soybean per hectare while Nigeria generates 0.97 tons per hectare, which he attributed to poor farm practice and technical knowledge. The director-general said that PAA is trying to leverage the partnership agreement with IITA to bridge the gap between the farmer, the private sector, and the quality research done in the institute. Related News He added that when the gap is bridged, farmers, as well as other stakeholders, will put into practice the cutting-edge research findings of IITA, yield per hectare will increase and farming will become more profitable and attractive in the country. Speaking also during the ceremony, Kenton Dashiell, DDG -partnership for delivery, IITA said with the MoU, IITA, and PAA has agreed to exchange information in areas of human capacity development on the most impactful practices (MIP) on IITA’s core mandate crops that will impact private sector stakeholders in the agricultural value chain and farmers in Nigeria thereby bringing about higher produce, farmer profitability and ultimately food security in Nigeria. While explaining the purpose of the collaboration Ayo Oluwa Okediji, an information technology consultant with PAA explained that the collaboration is aimed at driving productivity and profitability in agribusiness by leveraging digital technologies and other innovative solutions to aid proper dissemination and transfer of IITA’s research results into effective policy and practice across the agri-food value chain. According to him, the MoU will leverage the technical strengths of both parties for the development of agribusiness and farmer profitability in Nigeria adding that, while IITA is known for quality research in agriculture, PAA is renowned for its private sector agribusiness capacity-building projects. Okediji further explained that, while IITA carries out quality research with groundbreaking agricultural discoveries, its research output needs to be properly disseminated to the private sector stakeholders and local farmers for practice notwithstanding commendable efforts by the IITA Business Incubation platform, designed to ensure that results from research are transferred into practice by end-users. He added that, with this IITA/PAA collaboration, more stakeholders within the agribusiness value chain can be reached and empowered through access to research results that are domiciled with IITA which can improve farmers’ livelihood. ‘The MoU will help PAA support what IITA is presently doing in terms of capacity building and extension to extend research results. This is one of the core values that PAA is bringing into the partnership” he said. Similarly, Frederick Schreurs, CEO, IITA Business Incubation Platform further explains IITA BIP’s founding objectives to stimulate product development and provide expertise and training in commercial agriculture and farm management, and opportunities for market expansion, which involves identifying pioneering technologies, developing partnership agreements to leverage their potential, refining them into products, test-marketing these products, training partners in manufacturing and marketing.

The Premier Agribusiness Academy (PAA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for private sector and farmers’ capacity building. The Director General (DG) of the academy, Mr. Francis Toromade, who spoke shortly after the MoU signing at the institute in Ibadan, Oyo State, said what PAA will do as part of the partnership is to make sure that all the commodities and crops that are the focus of research in IITA like cassava, maize, soybean and yam, among others get private sector awareness and patronage. According to Toromade, the purpose of the agreement is to increase human capacity development through good and most impactful agricultural practice in the areas of maize, cowpea, soybean, yam and cassava cultivation. Toromade, who blamed the low yield per hectare of soybean in Nigeria on lack of knowledge and technical ability of farmers, explained that with the same farmland size, South Africa generates 1.97 tons of soybeans per hectare, while Nigeria generates 0.97 tons per hectare with the same size and quality of land. He said what PAA is trying to do with the collaboration is to bridge the gap between the farmers, the private sector and the quality research done in IITA. DDG, Partnership for Delivery, IITA, Dr. Kenton Dashiell, said with the MoU, both parties have agreed to exchange information in areas of human capacity development on the most impactful practices (MIP) on IITA’s core mandate crops that will impact private sector stakeholders in the agricultural value chain and farmers in Nigeria. While explaining the purpose of the collaboration, an Information Technology (IT) Consultant with PAA, Mr. AyoOluwa Okediji, explained that the collaboration is aimed at driving productivity and profitability in agribusiness by leveraging digital technologies and other innovative solutions to aid proper dissemination and transfer of IITA’s research results into effective policy and practice across the agri-food value chain. According to him, the MoU will leverage on the technical strengths of both parties for the development of agribusiness and farmers profitability in Nigeria adding that, while IITA is known for quality research in agriculture, PAA is renowned for its private sector agribusiness capacity building projects. The CEO, IITA Business Incubation Platform, Mr. Frederick Schreurs, explained that IITA BIP’s founding objective is to stimulate product development, and provide expertise and training in commercial agriculture and farm management, and opportunities for market expansion, which involves identifying pioneering technologies, developing partnership agreements to leverage their potential, refining them into products, test-marketing these products, training partners in manufacturing and marketing.