No fewer than 50 farmers and extension agents have been trained and empowered in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria on resilient practices in cassava production.
The training, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in partnership with the Kwara State Government was meant to boost food production in the country.
The capacity building workshop, tagged ‘Emergency Empowerment and Demonstration of Climate Change Resilient Practice in Cassava Production and Empowerment of Farmers and Extension Agents in the North-West, North-East, and North-Central Region’, was held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital recently.
Aliyu Issa Kabir, Kwara state field office coordinator at the Ministry of Agriculture disclosed that part of the mandate of the ministry is to ensure robust development of agriculture through various training and empowerment initiatives for both youths and women in the sector across the country.
According to him, the workshop is one of the series of training lined up for the year, adding that the Ministry had earlier this year organized training on soya bean and yam production.
He noted that the current hardship in the country necessitated the need to empower our teeming youths, in order to improve the output of the existing farmers and encourage more people to embrace farming as a business.
Kabir, further disclosed that the empowerment would be in kind and partly cash for the beneficiaries as a start-up to spur them and encourage others to see the potential of agriculture as the only sector with the capacity to employ a substantial number of citizens of the country.
In his brief remarks, Kabir Mohammed, Kwara state ministry of agriculture, assured farmers that the present administration, under the leadership of Governor Abdulrazaq, would continue to prioritize people-oriented projects and programs, especially for farmers and the downtrodden among residents of the state.
He urged the participants not to sell the items with a view to assisting the state government in realizing its aim of achieving food security in the country.
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In his submission, Gabriel Fasanu, chairman of the Nigerian Cassava Growers Association, Kwara chapter appreciated the efforts of the organizers of the program, adding that the training has broadened the knowledge of members of the association to achieve breakthroughs in their businesses.
Fasanu, however, appealed to the government at all levels to clear more land for farming activities and ensure proper funding of the sector, which he described as the catalyst of industrialization in any country.
In her welcome address, Khadijat Ahmed, managing director, Kwara ADP, explained that the participants were carefully selected to ensure that only the real farmers benefitted from the empowerment scheme.
Ahmed, however, informed the farmers that the extension agents would monitor how they manage those items on their farm.
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