The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has provided training and empowerment to 3,000 vulnerable farmers in 12 states in the South-West and South-South regions of the country.
As part of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Scheme of the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, the ministry mentioned that the initiative is implementing the Agriculture For Food and Jobs Creation Programme.
The training and empowerment of the 3,000 farmers were carried out simultaneously in the 12 South-West and South-South states of the country, as stated by Dr Deola Lordbanjou, a Director in the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Services.
The beneficiaries, who were identified by the Ministries of Agriculture in their respective states and verified by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, were given farm inputs to support and enhance their farm production and productivity.
The distributed inputs include knapsack sprayers, organic fertilizers, herbicides, maize seeds, rice seeds, vegetable seeds for homestead farming, day-old chicks for poultry farmers, and feeds for fish farmers.
The programme’s objective, according to the ministry, is to boost the productivity of vulnerable farmers through modern agricultural technologies to take them out of poverty.
“12 resource persons were drawn from the Faculties of Agriculture in the federal universities to take the farmers through good agricultural practices that will assist them to become successful commercial farmers.
“One of the resource persons, Professor Tajudeen Bameke of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, urged farmers to add value to their products to make more profit,” the statement read partly.
