The Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN) has trained 60 extension workers from 4 states of Nigeria on advancing agriculture through the deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
The training introduced participants to an application known as RICEADVICE, a technology that helps farmers and extension workers get the right needed information for proper agricultural practice.
The application which has been made available to the participating extension workers would help tackle the issues of climate change and advise farmers on the weather through weather focus.
The Executive Director of WOFAN Hajiya Salamatu Garba while speaking with journalists on the sideline of the training said the 60 extension workers would engage 100 farmers each on modern farm technologies.
Hajiya Garba said the training also includes exposing the farmers and extension workers to insurance facilities to secure their investments.
“We invited 60 extension workers from 4 states in Nigeria to train them on ICT led technology in agriculture and specifically we are looking at the use of what we call RICEADVICE”
“RICEADVICE is an application that farmers can use and the extension workers, to advice farmers efficiently to be able to give them adequate information, because once if the farmers don’t get the right information that they require then it means they are misguided and again because we’re increasing production, it means that we have to change our ways of doing things”.
She noted that WOFAN got insurance companies involved in the training because there was a need for farmers to know what to do in times of climate crises and losses.
“We also brought in insurance people so that they will give us the necessary products that they have that go in line with climate shock.
“Last year, you know that a lot of farmers faced flood issues and some faced drought, so now if any of the farmers unfortunately finds themselves in that situation, what will the insurance company do?
“So we are going into a partnership with them, we will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to make sure that farmers meet up with their requirements, and if anything happens they will also be there to address the situation for the farmers”, she added
Hajia Garba said the training is also looking at the use of drones in increasing productivity, advancing farmers and capturing data and the extension workers were trained on the simple deployment of drone technologies.
The WOFAN boss said farmers are going to be working in clusters of hundreds of them because they were encouraged to go into various associations and get registered.
“That means that we’re going to have a large hectare of farm like 1,000 or 2,000 hectares all together and it’s the only drone that can give you the information you need within a short period of time.
“So we have brought that to see how extension workers will be able to use these services and this was demonstrated to all the extension workers.
On the country’s increasing population and its effect on availability of farm lands she said “So now we are marrying technology to increase in production, like I always say the size of Nigeria is increasing per day, We used to be 200 million, now is more than 200 million were talking of 230 to 240 million, farm size is reducing and population is increasing.
“It means we have to look for technology and methods to which we can meet the food demand of Nigeria, it is only when we invest in such services that we can assist in providing food, which is going to be the next thing to knock off non-oil economic production in the country“, she further explained.
Speaking on the cost of the equipment, Hajia Garba said WOFAN started assisting with technology since last year as grants, adding that the grant is a revolving grant that ensures that groups that get the grant use it to generate income and the grant becomes accessible to the community.
“It is for a farmer to benefit and all the group members around the farmer to use it efficiently to generate income at the end of the day what they get there is supposed to now support another set of farmers”
