The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has referred to as for elevated funding by the Nigerian authorities in mechanized farming, infrastructure, and vitality to handle the nation’s meals safety and local weather points.
Throughout a pre-conference media briefing for the Nationwide Engineering Convention and Annual Normal Assembly, set for November 19, 2024, NSE President Mrs. Margaret Oguntala harassed the significance of specializing in native manufacturing of farming tools as a substitute of counting on imports.
“Growing native farming tools ought to be a precedence for the federal government,” Mrs. Oguntala mentioned. “Counting on imported agricultural equipment strains the economic system and limits development within the sector.”
The theme of the convention, “Pioneering Engineering Options to Nigeria’s Local weather and Meals Safety Challenges,” addresses the necessity for sustainable engineering options to sort out meals safety and local weather change.
Mrs. Oguntala said that the convention would cowl modern options to enhance agricultural output and resilience.
“We’ll discover developments in agricultural equipment, similar to automated tractors and precision seeders, to spice up productiveness,” she mentioned. “We can even talk about environment friendly irrigation techniques powered by sensor-based applied sciences and renewable vitality options like mini-grid photo voltaic installations to assist rural farmers obtain vitality independence.”
The convention can even cowl postharvest improvements, together with solar-powered storage and cellular cold-chain options to scale back meals loss throughout the agricultural worth chain.
“We’ll talk about precision agriculture, the place instruments like distant sensing and soil well being mapping might help farmers maximize yields and optimize useful resource use,” she added.
Mrs. Oguntala additionally emphasised the necessity to tackle local weather change in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
“We’ll talk about local weather change adaptation methods similar to climate-resilient crop varieties and digital instruments for early climate alerts, that are important for safeguarding meals techniques in an unpredictable atmosphere.”
Mrs. Oguntala additional addressed the nation’s infrastructure and vitality crises, noting the collapse of Nigeria’s energy grid and deteriorating infrastructure.
“Nigerian engineers have the information, expertise, and capability to handle these challenges. Nevertheless, the federal government should put money into constructing new infrastructure and sustaining current ones,” she mentioned.
She harassed that the nation’s vitality demand far exceeds the present provide, highlighting the significance of renewable vitality investments.
“Vitality independence is vital to the nation’s development. Appointing an engineer as Minister of Power might present the experience wanted to handle our energy challenges,” she concluded.
The Nationwide Engineering Convention is predicted to deal with engineering-driven options to meals safety and local weather challenges and to encourage collaborative efforts to safe a sustainable future for Nigeria.
