The Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Nigeria has trained and supported 3,000 smallholder farmers across 12 states in the South-West and South-South regions under the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Creation program. This initiative aims to increase productivity, incomes, and food security.
Capacity Building
To equip the farmers with modern commercial farming knowledge and skills, 12 experts from federal university agriculture faculties facilitated the training. The curriculum focused on good agricultural practices around soil fertility, seed selection, pest and disease control, post-harvest handling, and value addition.
Critical Farm Inputs
Each of the 3,000 vulnerable farmers from Ogun, Oyo, Edo, Cross River and other states received vital inputs like irrigation kits, organic fertilizers, improved seed varieties, day-old chicks etc. to immediately apply the new skills.
Driving Agricultural Transformation
According to the Agricultural Extension Services Director, the program seeks to sustainably transform smallholder farmers into productive commercial entities. This will tackle poverty and food insecurity while supporting the wider economic diversification agenda.
The Ministry highlighted that expanding this initiative across Nigeria coupled with input subsidies and market linkages, will drive agricultural modernization amidst climate change impacts.