The Federal Government has introduced new programmes in produce inspection and export management, post-harvest technology, organic crop production, hydrology and water resources management, and organic animal production in polytechnics and colleges of education across the country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when he received the report of the National Implementation Committee on the Review and Development of Agricultural Curricula for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
Alausa said the new programmes were designed to equip graduates with practical and industry-relevant skills needed to strengthen food production, reduce post-harvest losses, expand agricultural exports and support the development of Nigeria’s agricultural value chains.
The minister said the review became necessary because the existing agricultural curricula had become outdated and were not preparing graduates for the realities of modern agriculture.
He said, “We are talking about greenhouse farming, hydroponics, aeroponics and all forms of agriculture. And then we continue to train our students, our citizens, theoretically.”
According to him, many graduates of agricultural programmes were poorly prepared for practical work because institutions lacked adequate demonstration farms and continued to teach outdated content.
“The major reason why we are not turning our input into output was because these young people were poorly trained,” Alausa said.
He added, “You have a lot of schools that have agricultural programmes, they don’t even have demonstration farms in their school. And even if they had demonstration farms, the content that they were being taught wasn’t the right content.”
Highlighting some of the new programmes, Alausa said the introduction of Produce Inspection and Export Management at the National Diploma and Higher National Diploma levels would support Nigeria’s efforts to increase agricultural exports and diversify its economy.
He said, “We now have a new programme in OND and HND in Produce Inspection and Export Management. That’s very key.”
The minister added, “Agricultural export is a major part of that diversification. Now, having a dedicated programme at OND level, HND level, in Produce Inspection and Export Management, that’s good.”
He said the new Post-Harvest Technology programme was equally important because of the large quantity of agricultural produce lost after harvest.
“We all agree today that almost 45 to 50 per cent of our agricultural produce goes into waste,” he said.
He added that the exercise also produced 31 National Occupational Standards, of which 27 were completely new while four existing standards were reviewed.
“In the past, we had only four occupational standards in agriculture. So, this is a major boost to skills training in the field of agriculture,” Bugaje said.
According to him, the exercise produced a total of 70 curricula and occupational standards covering the various levels and areas of agricultural training.
Bugaje said the relevant regulatory bodies had considered the reports and approved the documents.
He said, “This assignment has been completed. The regulatory bodies have also considered the reports of these new curricula, and our two boards, the Board and Commission, have also approved these documents.”
He added that samples of the new curricula were presented to the minister, while the complete set of booklets would subsequently be presented to the ministers for public presentation.
“On that occasion, I believe we need to do it well so that Nigerians will see the Renewed Hope in agriculture. It is actually a major boost to agriculture,” Bugaje said.
The Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Ahmad, said the implementation of the new curricula must be accompanied by extensive sensitisation of institutions, industry stakeholders, academics and other relevant actors.
She said the new approach represented a major departure from the previous structure of agricultural training.
“Don’t forget, the directive given to us when we were carrying out this assignment is that we should go 80 per cent practical and 20 per cent theory,” Ahmad said.
She added, “Initially, it was 70 per cent theory and 30 per cent practical. This is a radical change from the practice.”
Ahmad said stakeholders must understand the reasons behind the reform to ensure effective implementation.
“It is important for the public to understand why the reform, why the initiative. If they don’t understand, then the implementation will be faulty right from the onset. People will not understand what we are doing,” she said.
She urged the NBTE and other relevant agencies to organise a comprehensive rollout and sensitisation programme for stakeholders.
“Every stakeholder that has anything to do with agriculture must be part and parcel of this rollout,” Ahmad said.
She also called for adequate funding for the implementation phase, particularly teacher training and stakeholder sensitisation.
“As you are doing this budget, it should be part of it so that we know where the money is coming for the big rollout,” she said.
Alausa said the curriculum reform was coming at a critical time when the Federal Government was seeking to improve food security, expand agricultural production and reduce Nigeria’s dependence on oil.
He noted that despite Nigeria’s large agricultural potential, a significant proportion of production remained subsistence-based.
“At least 80 per cent of our agricultural output is still from subsistence farming,” he said, adding that the contribution of mechanised farming remained relatively low.
“We’re still likely subsistence-based farming. We can’t continue this way,” the minister said.
The agricultural curriculum review is part of the Federal Government’s broader effort to reposition tertiary technical and vocational education towards competency-based, industry-driven and employment-focused training.
The reform comes amid renewed government efforts to strengthen food security, increase domestic agricultural production, promote agro-processing, reduce post-harvest losses and expand non-oil exports under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
By introducing specialised programmes in areas such as export management, organic farming, post-harvest technology and water resources management, the government is seeking to move agricultural education beyond predominantly classroom-based instruction and align training with the demands of modern agriculture and the wider agricultural value chain.
