CBN, NIRSAL to train 870 extension workers, supervisors, farmers’ leaders in Jigawa


The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) are to train 870 extension workers, their supervisors and farmers leaders in Jigawa.

The Commissioner for Agriculture in Jigawa, Alhaji Kabiru Ali, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Dutse.

``The training is to prepare farmers for the cluster farming operation introduced by the state government to produce Sesame, Rice, Groundnut and Soya beans.

``The state government will engage farmers through the farmers associations to cultivate the four major crops on 14,350 hectares across the state.

``Fifty hectares of land each would be made available to farmers in the 287 wards of the state to cultivate the crops,’’ Ali said.

According to him, NIRSAL would train the beneficiaries on modern agricultural development practices through crops value chain, which would give the state a comparative advantage.

The commissioner explained that while NIRSAL would be the major sponsor of the training, the state government would provide training items like tapes, insecticides, planters, threshers and certified seeds.

He said the government would also provide office and house accommodation for the NIRSAL trainers.

Ali explained that from the meeting held by the ministry with NIRSAL officials on the programme, the training venues and many more had been identified.

He said that the ministry and the NIRSAL officials were satisfied with the modalities on the ground.

According to him, the state government intends to assist farmers’ right from farm preparations up to the time of harvesting.

``The government will not give farmers’ cash, but rather will provide them with all the needed farm inputs.

``The farmers will be expected to pay back after they must have harvested and sold the produce,’’ the commissioner added.

He said for the training programme, which will commence on May 23, the beneficiaries would be required to fill and sign an agreement form with the government.

Ali said the form would contain a list of what each of the farmers collected from the government.

He said the farmers were expected to produce four tonnes against the normal two tonnes per hectare using modern knowledge and equipment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Jigawa Government had recently distributed 450 motorcycles to extension workers in the state and their supervisors for programme.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monsanto Nigeria Launches 3 Conventional Maize Hybrids

Maize farmers across Nigeria now have 3 high yielding conventional maize hybrids to choose from the DEKALB ® brand as Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited launches 3 conventional maize hybrids. The launch held in Abuja on Tuesday May 17 2016 had in attendance farmers, development partners, government regulatory bodies and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors of the economy. The launch of these hybrid seeds follows their registration by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries in February 2016. The white maize hybrid, DK234 alongside the 2 yellow maize hybrids, DK920 and DK818 obtained registration approval for use in Nigeria after testing across various agro ecological zones on multi-location farms. The white maize hybrid DK234 with yield potential of 13 tonnes per hectare is well adapted for the Southern and Northern Guinea Savanna ecologies and shows tolerance to Maize Streak Virus, ...
Read more

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit...
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultura...
Read more