The Agriculture and Rural Development Division (ARDD) of the Centre for Educational Planning, Economics & Research Development (CEPERD) is shaping the move to next-generation farming in Nigeria, by fostering innovation with technology and sharing actionable knowledge. We believe that now, more than ever, this shift is essential to creating opportunities for the youth, transforming rural economies and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The Division is committed to carrying out cutting-edge, evidence-based, policy-relevant research focusing on Nigeria’s agriculture sector. ARDD brings a wealth of expertise and experience to all our research activities which are locally and internationally acknowledged for their rigor. Our experienced researchers with expertise in agricultural economics, applied economics, and economic development develop and apply innovative quantitative and qualitative tools to study numerous critical issues in the field of agriculture, including nutrition and food safety, agricultural value chains, agricultural sustainability, agricultural development, and rural livelihood improvement.

Our dissemination efforts target policy makers, development partners, and research community through publications, seminars, workshops, conferences, and dialogues. Having partnerships with government agencies, local and international think-tanks, and other research institutes, we hope to make a meaningful contribution to a sustainable future of Nigeria’s agriculture and improve the well-being of people residing in rural communities.

ARDD sets up the strategic plan, which aimed at expanding the financing field from the agricultural sector to the rural financing in addition to diversification of projects to include services projects and commercial projects with special focus on women and rural women in particular. In the field of support services, these services were expanded to include infrastructure, water, baseline organizations and cooperative societies in the marginalized rural areas.

ARDD builds broad partnerships at the local level, especially with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, agricultural agencies, state ministries of agriculture, private organizations, foundations and NGOs.

The Division addresses agricultural research and design issues in Nigeria through the following interventions:
Coordinating implementation of national agricultural R&D programmes

Facilitating collaboration among stakeholders of the national agricultural research systems

Promoting public – private partnerships in national agricultural R&D

Improving agricultural technology generation, dissemination and adoption in Nigeria and other developing countries through collective efforts, training and capacity building.

AT A GLANCE

• Our research in agriculture plays an important role in the foundation’s broader effort to empower women and girls with economic opportunities.
• ARDD is interested in agriculture across Nigeria because research shows that growth in the agricultural sector is the most effective way to reduce poverty and hunger.
• Agriculture is the main source of income for several hundred million people in Nigeria and across the world who struggle with poverty and hunger, most of whom are connected to small-scale, or smallholder, farms—plots of land roughly the size of a soccer pitch or Nigerian football field.
• Evidence shows that with the right kinds of support, smallholder farmers in Nigeria can tap the power of food production to create a better life for their families and improve their communities while providing local consumers with reliable access to healthy, affordable food.
• Smallholder farmers in Nigeria, who collectively supply most of the population’s food, are incredibly resourceful in the face of challenges but need new options for sustainably producing and selling a wide array of crop and livestock products, especially as climate change rapidly intensifies the stresses they face.

MISSION

• To advance food security, resilience and inclusive economic growth in Nigeria and across the developing countries through innovations in sustainable agriculture
• To support initiatives that encourage generation of job opportunities, capacity building and development of the agricultural and productive infrastructure and facilitates finance opportunities to establish small enterprises.
• To promote innovative research, technology generation and adoption for sustainable agricultural development through affective partnership and capacity building.

VISION

To lead smallholder agriculture to a prosperous Nigeria with vibrant rural livelihoods, modern and sustainable business that creates value for farmers, entrepreneurs, youth and women, and produces affordable, nutritious and healthy food for all.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the Division are:

• 
  Contribution to improvement of food security and preservation of environment in Nigeria.
• Working on the Division’s sustainability and developing its programs in service of the agricultural and rural sector.
• Provide information needed for evidence-based decision-making and tracking of progress made towards attainment of the food and nutrition security goals
• Capacity building of farmers and cooperatives to improve their production and economic situation and defend their individual and collective rights.
• To coordinate and promote collaboration with Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Government Agricultural agencies, state agricultural ministries, public, private, civil society and international organizations in R&D
• Enhance access to information on agricultural production, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness for evidence-based decision making
• Contribution to provision of emergency and relief support and development of areas suffering from disasters, terrorism and banditry.
• Facilitate timely collection, analysis and communication of information for early warning of disasters/risks and monitoring of vulnerability, food security and weather patterns in the Region, contributing to timely interventions by the relevant authorities
• To improve agricultural technology generation, dissemination and adoption in the Nigeria through collective efforts, training, and capacity building
• To strengthen research and development in Nigeria by mobilising human, financial and technological resources to implement and sustain demand-driven activities.
• Create a credible source of information that can be accessed by a growing number of organisations (public, private, development partners, and civil society);

ARDD Goals

• The Division’s activities contribute directly toward achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with specific focus on:
  Goal 1: Become a centre of excellence for scholarship on food, behaviour, and health.
• Goal 2: No poverty: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
• Goal 3: Zero hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
• Goal 4: Gender equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
• Goal 5: Assume a leadership role in consolidating, coordinating and catalyzing social science centered scholarship, policy and action on food security and the sustainability of complex food systems.
• Goal 6: Decent work and economic growth: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.
• Goal 7: Grow and disseminate the Entrepreneurship and Innovation body of knowledge in food, agriculture and bio-renewable.
• Goal 8: Climate action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

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