OCP, Others Seek Collaboration On Agric

OCP, Others Seek Collaboration On Agric

Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

In a bid to boost agricultural productivity, the OCP Africa in collaboration with the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P), Morocco has begun move to foster a relationship between the university in Morocco and the Nigerian universities around issues of technology, environment, agriculture and innovation.

The program, structured around the entire agricultural value chain, from the soil fertility, agricultural practices, and production, would be to broaden agricultural education and promote global best practice among Nigerian farmers.

The Country Manager, OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited, Mr. Caleb Usoh, while speaking on the sidelines of the Interactive forum of the group recently, called for a review of Nigerian universities curriculum to focus on the reality of the agricultural industrial need and the structure of economy.

Usoh, said: “We need to change the curriculum and make it tally with the realities obtainable in the country. Efforts are ongoing to partner the federal government as well as blending plants across the country to build farmers’ capacity, deepen access to quality farm inputs and expand access to technology.

“I think beyond agriculture and many other courses, we need to focus on the reality of the industry needs, the reality of how the economy should be structured. The idea of going to school is to learn what would be relevant to times in the society, times are changing, so we need to change the curriculum a bit, to match basically with what the society needs.”

As part of the collaboration also, OCP Africa and UM6P visited the authorities of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU

The MoU signed was aimed at strengthening cooperation between the parties in training, development, research, technology transfer in areas such as agriculture and fertilisation, architecture and urbanisation, chemical engineering and humanities/social sciences. Other areas covered were industrial management, mining, renewable energies and sustainable development.

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