The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has taken a significant step by training and empowering 3,000 vulnerable farmers across 12 states in the South-West and South-South regions.
Implemented under the Agriculture For Food and Jobs Creation Programme, as part of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Scheme, the initiative aims to uplift farmers’ livelihoods through enhanced productivity and modern agricultural techniques.
Dr. Deola Lordbanjou, a Director in the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Services, highlighted that the training and empowerment efforts were conducted concurrently across the designated states, with beneficiaries selected and validated by both state and federal agricultural authorities.
Beneficiaries received crucial farm inputs, including knapsack sprayers, organic fertilisers, herbicides, maize seeds, rice seeds, and vegetable seeds, tailored to boost their production and productivity levels. Poultry farmers were provided with day-old chicks, while fish farmers received feeds to support their operations.
The program’s overarching goal is to alleviate poverty among vulnerable farmers by leveraging modern agricultural technologies to enhance their output.
Drawing expertise from faculties of agriculture in federal universities, 12 resource persons facilitated sessions on good agricultural practices. Professor Tajudeen Bameke, from the Department of Agricultural Extension at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, emphasized the importance of value addition to agricultural products, urging farmers to seize opportunities for increased profitability.
