Fashola Calls for Application of Surveying Information in Agriculture

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has called for the deployment of geospatial inputs in the country’s agricultural system in order to achieve food security in the country.

Fashola spoke at the opening ceremony of a two-day survey coordination conference and meeting of the advisory board on survey training themed: “Geospatial Approach to Harness Agro Planning and Food Sustainability for Economic Development”.

The minister noted that the conference was an opportunity to brainstorm and proffer solutions, saying that Nigeria’s problem began when attention was diverted from agriculture, which was the mainstay of the economy during the oil boom that followed the discovery of oil at Oloibiri in 1956.

“Although we have failed in tapping our rich agricultural resources over the years, agriculture itself is already encumbered by climatic and environmental factors.

“It means that for us to achieve food sufficiency and security, there is urgent need of applying geospatial inputs into our agricultural system, hence the incumbent administration is paying diligence to agriculture as part of efforts in achieving the diversification of the economy.

“The plan is to help in redirecting the country from the unhealthy path of mono-economy,” Fashola said.
In his comments, the Surveyor-General of the Federation (SGoF), Abduganiyu Adebomehin, announced the readiness of his office to migrate from the Nigeria National Origin (NNO) to the World Geodetic System (WGS) 84-International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) 2014 to achieve best practices in geospatial world.

WGS 84 is the standard US Department of Defence definition of a global reference system for geospatial information and is the reference system for the Global Positioning System (GPS). It is compatible with the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS).

Adebomehin further appealed to all the states of the federation to migrate as well for the country to have a common reference point and avoid the burdens of conversions to align with international best practices.
He disclosed that in line with the Public-Private-partnership (PPP) arrangement of the federal government, the survey office had franchised its services.

He noted that this was to provide easy access to geospatial products for various stakeholders and sectors of the economy even as efforts were underway to revamp the high performance data centre of the office.

“This is also to enhance the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the government,” he stated.
Special guest at the event, Air Commodore Victor Aikhomu (rtd), highlighted the critical role of survey and geo-informatics to national security and other sectors of the economy.

He stated that failure in that regard means doom for modern day society, hence everything possible must be done, including robust regulatory regime, to prevent poverty of infrastructure development.