The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has trained and empowered 3,000 vulnerable farmers in 12 states in the South-West and South-South.
The ministry noted that the initiative was implementing the Agriculture For Food and Jobs Creation Programme, under the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Scheme of the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
A statement by a Director in the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Services, Dr Deola Lordbanjou, noted that 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.
The beneficiaries, who were drawn by the respective states’ Ministries of Agriculture and validated by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, were supported with farm inputs to assist and improve their farm production and productivity.
Inputs distributed include knapsack sprayers, organic fertilisers, herbicides, maize seeds, rice seeds, vegetable seeds for homestead farming, day-old chicks for poultry farmers and feeds for fish farmers.
According to the ministry, the programme’s objective is to take vulnerable farmers out of poverty by enhancing their productivity through modern agricultural technologies.
“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.
