On Wednesday, 5th August, 2015, the Director-General/CEO and the management of the Institute received the Technical Reform Committee of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). The Committee was led by Prof. E.O Oyedipe with Prof. O.D Ajakaiye (former Director-General/CEO of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, NISER) and Mrs. Kehinde Ajoni (Former Federal Permanent Secretary) as members.
The DG/CEO in her opening remarks said the Institute is well informed about the purpose of the visit which was to get input of stakeholders towards repositioning and reforming the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria to ensure efficient and effective National Agricultural Research System (NARS).
Furthermore, she expressed delight that FIIRO was selected as one of the stakeholders to make input in achieving the desired transformation. She assured the team that the Institute has given a close attention to the various indicators highlighted in the interview guide sent by the Committee as input for consideration in achieving the desired transformation.
The DG/CEO opined that the NARS is working especially providing research input to enhance agricultural output but admitted that a lot still need to be done in the area of strategic partnership with relevant organizations such as the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi which has express mandate in food and agro-allied processing technologies to convert efficiently agro outputs to shelve stable products with a view to reducing postharvest losses estimated at about 40% for agro outputs in Nigeria.
Prof. E.O Oyedipe in his contribution asserted that FIIRO is a critical Institute for product development and agro-processing without which much cannot be achieved in agro-value chain development. He observed that the major challenge facing agricultural growth in Nigeria is lack of coordination of National Research Institutes (NARIs) across the country and that he believes that the current effort being championed by the Technical Reform Committee of ARCN will address this challenge.
A critical issue that was raised and discussed during the meeting to ensure genuine reform is sustainable policy that will outlive any government or individual Director-General or Executive Director and this requires developing a system that is collaborative where the policy-making process is democratized to ensure full participation.
On a final note, the visiting team commended the leadership of the Institute with a comment that “FIIRO operates professionally”.