The Acting Director, Digital Economy Development Department, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Engr. Salisu Kaka has described the deployment of technology in agricultural practice as the bedrock with which students in agriculture can achieve more beyond their imagination.
Engr. Kaka said this while granting an interview with FUNAAB Bulletin after the closing ceremony of the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) training for the selected 100 Farm Practical Year (FPY) agricultural students beneficiaries.
Speaking about the NITDA endowment in FUNAAB, he said that the idea of the training and endowment is to adopt technology into agriculture; thereby NITDA came up with NAVSA which is about adopting technology into agricultural practices in order to maximize output and make agriculture much easier, much simpler, much smarter with maximum or optimal utilization of technology resources available.
He revealed that after FUNAAB, the NAVSA Smart agriculture will be introduced to the Federal University Dutse and Abuja Technology Village as a pilot project, with the aim of attracting the students.
On further partnership with FUNAAB, Engr. Salisu said “Whenever there is partnership, something is expected to be scaled out of the partnership, therefore, NITDA is confidence that FUNAAB will make something good out of the relationship and being an institution with that capability to carry out research, we expect and are convinced that they will come up with researches that can add value to the initial design of NAVSA”.
Corroborating him, the elated Director, Community-Based Farming Scheme (COBFAS), Prof. Sunday Adigbo said he was glad that FUNAAB is the first institution that has gone digital in Smart Agriculture.
He revealed that the journey started about a month ago and has seen the light of the day. He noted that the University has promised to sustain the project which he described as a long time one.
Earlier, while having an on-the-spot inspection of the Smart Brooding System and the Smart Irrigation and Soil Nutrients Monitoring System, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Christian Ikeobi who stood in for the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kolawole Salako appreciated NITDA and said that the donation will go a long way to help FUNAAB train its students.
He promised that FUNAAB is ready to upscale whatever technology NITDA will further endow to the university and push it forward.
