The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has endorsed the move by the Federal Government to develop agriculture as the mainstay of the nation’s economy.
The institute also charged President Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that appropriate policies and funding should be provided in order to encourage people’s interest in agriculture.
The NIPR, in its communique issued at the end of its 2016 Annual National Conference and AGM held at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan with the theme “Networking for National Economy: The Synergy of Agriculture and Communication”, stated that there are rich potentials in agriculture and food sufficiency in the country.
“The conference commended the Federal Government for consistently advocating the need to return to Agriculture as the main stay of the Nigerian economy and urged government to match its desires with appropriate policies and funding to drive the renewed interest in Agriculture,” the institute said in the communique signed by the Chairman, Communiqué Drafting Committee, Tope Adaramola, who is also the Chairman, Ogun State chapter of NIPR.
It added that “The Forum identified Nigeria’s rich potentials in Agriculture and food sufficiency, but regretted that the potentials had not been actualized partly because of lack of networking and effective application and management of communication.”
The NIPR highlighted the significance of networking and communications as panacea to the dysfunctionality in the nation’s socio-economic and infrastructural development, while also identifying poverty as deterrence to the nation’s agricultural revolution.
“The conference noted that there is a disconnect between research and development in the Agricultural sector and key players in the Agricultural sector on the one hand, and between government policy and the needs of the peasant farmers on the other hand,” it said in the communique issued at the weekend.
It added that “Public Relations and Communications professionals have a crucial role to reconnect all these diverse stakeholders.”
Similarly, the institute counselled Public Relations practitioners on the need to avail themselves of the opportunities to grow interest and competences in Agricultural Communication by encouraging the evolution of Agricultural Journalism, development communication and Agricultural Communication’s Institutes as obtainable in some developed economies.
“Discipline and adherence to ethics was identified as a major pivot for sustainable contributions and activities that could lead to food sufficiency and agricultural revolution,” it said, while further stressing that “Translation of modern scientific discoveries and Agricultural registers into the various local languages to enhance the comprehension and usage of such skills and strategies by farmers at the grassroots.”
While submitting that every Nigerian should embrace farming by utilizing all available (space) within their vicinity to enhance food sufficiency, the body image makers also implored government to imbibe marketing communications policies in the Agricultural sector and to create opportunities for strategic engagements by critical stakeholders like the NIPR in enriching and bringing policy and skills gaps.
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