The Nigerian Women for Agricultural Progressive and Development Initiative (NWAPDI) and an American-based company, Norcom LLC, will partner to boost the capacity of women and youths in agriculture.
The duo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday in Abuja.
The capacity building is on agricultural technologies that will help women and youths engage in better practices.
The National Coordinator NWAPDI, Mrs Omolara Svensson, who spoke at the ceremony, said the partnership would build the capacity of women and youth across the country in agricultural mechanisation, post-harvest losses, packaging and processing of commodities.
Svensson said that it would assist in creating a farmers ‘ base.
The coordinator explained that the technology provided by the company would go a long way in helping the country to achieve food sustainability.
“This company has the technology and we have the farming system that can be stepped up again with the use of technology in order for us to actually achieve food sustainability and security.
“This will not only help us have enough to consume as a nation, we can as well engage in processing and export of commodities.’’
Svensson described the partnership as a win-win thing for Nigerian farmers as well as the youth; adding that it would afford youths in agriculture opportunities to learn value chain, and digitisation, among others.
“There is need for proper planning which requires accurate farmer data and this partnership will tackle that.
“One of the problems we are facing in Nigeria is controlling, maintaining and owning our data and secondly post-production waste, these are the two top most issues that we will be working on.
“We have size of farmlands; we are actually producing and with the right technologies in place, we will track all challenges in agricultural production,’’ he said.
President of Norcom LLC, Mr Dion Croom, explained that the partnership was about training youth on how to sustain themselves with the use of technologies at their disposal.
“The key element is how you sustain yourself; this is not about being sustained in some organisation outside of Nigeria; we are in here to help NWAPDI to stand on their two feet; to own their data.
“We are going to show them how to do that; the importance of doing that and how it will benefit women and youth in Nigeria.
“The partnership is about empowering women and youth in Nigeria,’’ he said.
NAN
