The Kaduna State Agricultural Development Agency, on Friday said it would train 270,000 Rice, Soya beans and Maize farmers in the state over the next three years on best farming practices for enhanced production.
Malam Mukhtar Ibrahim, the Cooperative Officer of the agency, said in Zaria while distributing motorcycles to some Agricultural Extension Officers, that the training would cover selected farmers in 19 local government areas of the state.
“The target of the project is to train farmers on good agricultural practice and to link them to ready markets to sell their produce,” the official said, stressing that the motorcycles were donated to encourage extension workers get to as many farmers as possible under the project.
“The idea of the distribution of the motorcycle is to enable the extension officers to perform their duties as expected with good results,” he said, adding that they were donated by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa with support from Bill Gates Foundation.
“So far we are working in six local government, which include Makarfi, Giwa, Kudan, Lere, Ikara and Kauru.
“In the second year we are adding 10 local governments and in the final year we are bringing in three more to make the total of 19 local governments covered for the three years under the project,” he said.
Ibrahim explained that 81,000 farmers are currently being trained in the six local government areas that the project took off, with “80 demonstration plots of different crops especially, rice maize and Soya beans already set up.”
Ibrahim urged those that benefited from the motorcycles to utilise them effectively to the benefits of farmers and success of the project.
Also, the Maigana Zonal Manager of the agency, Ahmad Abubakar advised the extension officers to use the motorcycles to reach out to the farmers so as to get desired result.
One of the beneficiaries, Yahuza Abdul pledged that the extension workers would use the opportunity to reach all farmers under the programme to guide them in best agricultural practices that would guarantee return of investment.
