500 young Nigerians to be trained in farmer business school

No fewer than 500 youths will be trained on Agricultural skill Acquisition Program, ASAP, a project under the Skills Development for Youth Employment, SKYE, in the second module of the program for the year 2020.

Speaking at the end of the first module, the Executive Director of FarmAgric Foundation, Veronica Valentine said at the weekend that after successfully conducting the first module in which about 300 youth were trained, the programme is looking forward to increasing the number of participants to 500.

“We are steadily achieving our aim of training and equipping Nigerian youths for better inclusion in Agriculture. So far, we have trained 300 people and are looking to increase the number to 500 in module two which is scheduled to commence on the 24th February 2020,” she said.

Asked about the registration process for the second module, Valentine responded that, “registration for module two has started and the classes will commence on the 24th of February, 2020. She added that interested persons are encouraged to apply via on the FarmAgric Foundation website, farmagricfoundation.org.”

“We are very pleased at the level of interest from the youths especially the number of females in the training. 78 out of 300 participants is a good number to start with, given that one of the main challenges in the agriculture sector is women empowerment and gender equality.

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“SKYE is committed to ensuring at least 30 percent female participation in all our interventions in the agriculture sector,” she said.

GIZ’s Cluster Coordinator for Sustainable Economic Development (SEDEC) and Head of Skills Development for Youth Employment – SKYE, Hans-Ludwig Bruns, said the SKYE program is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with FarmAgric Foundation for Agriculture.

The participants who are made up of young Nigerians with interest in agriculture, unemployed and under-employed youths; and low-income farmers, expressed their excitement at being exposed to the modern agricultural practices and the opportunity the programm is affording them.

One of the participants, Nonye Ezenwa, said: “I never knew Agriculture could be this simple. With this training, I feel like I can go into a field, cultivate and have a good harvest. The classes were very practical, way beyond just head knowledge”.