As part of the implementation of the Agenda of the National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Hajiya Saratu Iya Aliyu, the NACCIMA Secretariat has commenced discussions for a Memorandum of Understanding (M.o.U) with the Business Incubation Platform (BIP) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Ibadan (IITA) Ibadan.
To this end, NACCIMA’s Director General, Amb. Ayo Olukanni accompanied by Mr Opeyemi Alaran, Head Research and Policy Development, NACCIMA had a meeting with the Management Team of the IITA BIP, led by Dr. Jeroen Huising, at the IITA premises, Ibadan, on 6th November 2019. The focus of the proposed strategic partnership is to place at the disposal of NACCIMA members, the vast agricultural research and innovation for which IITA is internationally renowned.
This research and innovation is expected to be of benefit to members of the chamber movement in the Agriculture sector and its entire value chain.
The BIP serves as the bridge for the dissemination of new and validated technology from the IITA with the intent of commercialization.
The proposed strategic partnership will see NACCIMA serve as a broker for IITA in three areas: linking customers to IITA products, scaling up its Agripreneur (Youth in Agriculture) programme, and providing training through the demonstration of new agricultural techniques.
The objective of the partnership is to make significant contribution to improve food security, livelihood and nutritional value. It will also promote agriculture and agribusiness and associated industries, as a viable business for Chambers members. Under the M.o.U, Chambers members are expected to benefit from Capacity building in new farming techniques, use of improved disease-resistant seedlings for cultivation of food crops such as, Cassava, Rice, Banana and Plantain, Cowpea, Maize and the propagation of YAM AEROPONICS (i.e. growing yams in the air without using the soil).
Others are high yielding legumes and vegetables such as the varieties of pepper (e.g. the Nsukka yellow pepper). The partnership will also provide access by NACCIMA members to the Gene Bank of the IITA with over 40,000 varieties of seedlings. After discussions with BIP officials, the NACCIMA DG and Mr Alaran visited IITA Demonstration farms to observe farm mechanization, land and soil conservation, effective application of cropping cycle and management of digital agric platforms. Ahead of the signing of the M.o.U, immediate steps are envisioned by BIP for NACCIMA members to tap into IITA’s Capacity Development to strengthen Research for Development (R4D) as well as formal and informal training activities, the commercialization of agricultural products and an effective public-private partnership.
