The Need For Agricultural Extension Services Law

By Emmanuel Ngenegbo

Despite several reforms in agriculture, we have not recorded a significant and long-lasting improvement in the agricultural sector. It is unfortunate that food prices remain volatile and Nigeria still counts as one of the largest importers of agricultural product despite her agrarian economy.

It is reported that Nigeria has only been able to use just about 40 -42 percent of its arable land in the past decade – one that continuously drops due to lack of proper intervention despite the humongous annual budget earmarked for tackling insufficiency in the sector. The National Bureau of Statistics revealed in their latest report that crop production contributed 17.47 percent of our gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2025. This was a sharp drop from 23.42 percent which was recorded in the last quarter of 2024 – this performance is largely attributed to the slow activity in crop production.

Previous studies also showed that one of the major problems causing decline in crop production is the inadequate knowledge and poor assessment of land for agricultural production. Rural farming remains prevalent in the country among small holder farmers with little or no knowledge on how to improve their farming techniques and grow harvest yields; many of these farmers still engage in harmful agricultural practices like burning, use of excessive pesticides and poor storage facilities.

Nigeria has invested a lot in agricultural research, several agricultural research institutes have been established by the government, these research institutes all have a mandate to develop improved seedlings for farming, build technologies for easy farming activities and improvement on the overall faming systems in Nigeria. Over its long period of existence, these institutes have developed different improved varieties of our stable crops which are resistant to different conditions and offer more yields per hectare.

Agricultural extension services are used to translate innovations, information and demonstration of technological improvements to farmers. This extension services serve as the linking bridge that connect the activities of the research institutes to the farmers. Through a proper agricultural extension activity, these institutes carry their improved seedlings, developed mechanical and gender friendly farm equipment’s to these smallholder farmers. The institutes also organize and monitor the farmers through trials and demonstrations to ensure full adoption and assimilation of the research works.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, extension services are often underfunded and poorly coordinated. Many agriculture research institutes and local government areas agriculture department lack functional extension officers. The few who are available often lack the tools, mobility, and training to engage farmers effectively. This has led to a wide disconnect between research output and farm-level practice.

Research institutes continue to develop high-yielding, pest-resistant, and climate-resilient crop varieties but most of these innovations remain in their shelves, as farmers are either unaware of their existence or lack the guidance to adopt them. The result is stagnated yields, persistent poverty among small-scale farmers, and underutilization of Nigeria’s agricultural research investments.

If Nigeria is therefore interested in driving agricultural economic growth and sustainable development there is need to have a legislated National Agricultural Extension Services Act. This legislation will manifestly improve extension services in the country with a better structure, funding and coordination.

Nigeria currently has a National Agricultural Extension Services Policy; this policy was developed with the intention to improve on the subsisting efforts in extension delivery. The problem with policies like this is that no matter how beautifully drafted they are, they still remain an administrative document which does not have legal backing, and this leaves it open to lack of enforcement and abandonment.

In addition, without clear annual budgetary funding, policies like this rests largely on the discretion of its relevant ministries and agency, enforcement is highly unpredictable.

If the bill is passed into law, the attendant result is that extension services will have a strong legal structure which will include professionals whose sole task, in collaboration with the research institutes and other relevant agencies, is to carry agricultural innovation to the end users, such Act will make a provision for a clear budget line to push extension services and drive agricultural revolution. It has been proven that for any dollar spent on extension services, Nigeria is set to make 10 dollars, economically, this will also foster rural development by linking farmers to the value chain directly multiplying income and creating employment in the Agric business. Finally, the law would ensure an accountability structure and public reporting system on extension service performance, ensuring transparency and efficiency in the system.