The National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS)  is set to serve more local farmers better as it intends to extend its National  Farmers Helpline Centre ( NFHC) to Lagos.

The Executive Director of the Institute, Prof Mohammed Othman,  told  the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that  the anticipated success of the helpline to Nigerian farmers would be enormous.

Othman said that with the success of the helpline’s take off in Zaria last week, its Lagos sensitisation would  also going to be another successful story.

“The Nigerian farmers are on their way to get instant and genuine agricultural information from the comfort of their homes and farms with NAERLS nation-wide nationwide sensitisation campaign for the take off of the National Farmers’ Helpline Center (NFHLC).

“The initiative is part of the Federal Government’s efforts to deliver agricultural information to Nigerian farmers by e-extension using the Internet, telephone and social media platforms.

“We expect to build on the success of this campaign while we are in Lagos going by the diverse patterns of agricultural stakeholders in the state in particular and the zone in general”.

“The Lagos stakeholders’ meeting is expected to be graced by farmers, farmers’ representatives, agro dealers, corporate organizations, government agencies, media organisations and other interest groups in the South West zone,” he said.

An Assistant Director at NAERLS, Prof Sani Yusuf, said that the sensitisation was  aimed at taking the message of the benefits of the NFHLC to the farmers.

“The sensitisation campaign is taking place across the country with the aim of creating awareness on the potential of the NFHLC in getting current agricultural information to farmers and other stakeholders.

“The sensitisation workshop for the South-West Zone will take place at the Akerele Auditorium, Federal Institute of Industrial Research,  Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos, on Monday 1 June 10,  2019.

According to the General Manager, NAERLS Development Services, Mr Akeem Lawal, the NFHLC has the capacity to attend to 30 callers simultaneously via telephone conversation.

“The centre  currently works from 8a.m.  to 5p.m. daily from Monday to Friday and the service hour is expected to increase to 24 hours daily subsequently.

“Some of the agricultural information farmers will have access to are: information on land preparation, crop and animal husbandry, best agricultural practices, appropriate pest and disease control methods, drugs and chemicals.

“Others are :  harvesting, processing, storage, marketing, the complete value chain for most agricultural commodities where necessary,” he said.

NAN reports that as part of the capacity building for the effective take off of the NFHLC, more than 100 NAERLS staffers had been trained on call centre service delivery.

Also,  agricultural information in thematic areas had been translated into Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo Languages as well as Pidgin English.

The National Farmers’ Help Line Centre is located at NAERLS Headquarters, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria while the zonal hubs will be located in the zonal coordinating research institutes and linked to the headquarters .

(NAN)