THE Kaduna State government has trained 2,265 youths who are to benefit from the African Union Development Agency sponsored post Civid-19 agriculture programme.
The project tagged: ‘Innovative Strengthening of Small Holder Farmers Capabilities and Land Restoration Amid Covid-19′ is to be implemented in 21 Nigerian states for 10 years.
Speaking at the training, Director Agric Services, Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture, Alhaji Kasimu Ya’u said, the project which targets six value chains of maize, rice, soya beans, ginger and fishery and poultry, is aimed at mitigating food crisis in Kaduna and Nigeria in general.
Ya’u explained that the youths selected from the 23 local government areas of the state will be given some package of what they have been trained after the training.
According to him, “The participants are 2,265 young farmers selected according to their local government…
“The programme will last for 10 years. So, what we expect from these youths is that they should be self-employed and even employ other youths that are not opportune to be here.
“After the training, they will be given starter packs and cash. For example, those that are into poultry, will be given 150 birds; either broilers or layers depending on the choice of the farmer and those for rice, maize, ginger will be given one hectare package respectively,” he said.
Speaking on security threats to farmers in the state, the Agricultural Services Director said security has improved across the rural farming communities of the state, as the numbers of hectares cultivated this year is a great improvement over the previous farming season.
He however assured that measures have been put in place to ensure that beneficiaries make judicious use of the training and the starter packs. One of such measures, he said, will be the use of participants’ village heads as their guarantors.
One of the focal persons at the training and the Chairman, National Youth Council of Nigeria in Kaduna State, Bagudu Nathaniel said, the overall aim of the programme is to improve food sufficiency, nutritional value and grow the gross domestic product of the state and country at large.