The Senate has passed for third reading a bill to establish a Federal College of Agriculture in Shani Local Government Area of Borno State, Vanguard reported on October 15, 2026.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South. The Senate passed it after adopting a report from its Committee on Agricultural Colleges and Institutions, ThisDay reported. The House of Representatives must now concur. If it does, the bill will go to President Bola Tinubu for assent.
A College in a Farming Belt
Shani is an agricultural community known for growing rice, tomatoes and onions, and it borders Adamawa and Bauchi, which are also farming states, according to ThisDay. The college is intended to promote agricultural education and development in Shani and across the country, Vanguard reported.
Ndume framed the bill as a response to outdated methods. "One of the fundamental challenges facing agriculture in Nigeria is our continued reliance on crude farming methods," he said, according to Vanguard. Senate President Godswill Akpabio praised the committee's work and Ndume's sponsorship of the bill.
Ndume said the college would bring modern farming knowledge closer to rural farmers and help raise food production, The Authority reported on October 19, 2026. "I am excited about this achievement. I consider it one of my lifetime achievements in the National Assembly," he said, adding that the passage came "especially as we approach the end of our legislative session."
The Skills Gap the Bill Targets
Nigeria's farm advisory system is stretched. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said on September 30, 2026 that a single extension agent now serves between 5,000 and 10,000 farmers in some areas, against a ratio of one agent to 1,000 to 1,500 farm families under the earlier World Bank-supported Agricultural Development Programmes, Extractive 360 reported. "No field officer, however committed, can meaningfully serve that number through physical visits alone," Kyari said. He said the government has deployed more than 1,000 digital extension agents equipped with tablets, alongside 774 desk officers across the country's 774 local government areas, and cited Kano, which recruited 1,038 agents in 2025, and Oyo, which trained 131 agents in digital farmland measurement.
Mechanisation is also thin. Nigeria has fewer than one tractor per 1,000 hectares of arable land, Ewaen Imohe, Executive Director of Operations at the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), said at an Abuja agriculture expo, the News Agency of Nigeria reported on October 15, 2026. FoodPrices Nigeria tracks tomato, pepper and rice prices across Lagos markets, where supply from northern growing areas such as Borno South helps set what households pay.
#Senate #Borno #Shani #AgriculturalEducation #Legislation #Agriculture #Nigeria #FoodPrices