Gombe State: Federal Ministry of Agriculture trains Fruit & Vegetable Farmers 

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has trained about 45 fruit and vegetable farmers in Gombe State, Northern Nigeria. This is to enhance the availability of food in the country and enable the farmers get value for their investment.

Speaking at the one-day training in Gombe, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, said the training was on integrated crop pollination services.

To ensure effective productivity, Dr. Abubakar, who was represented by the Regional Director of the Ministry for the North-East, Mr. Umaru Mohammed-Yusuf, distributed a complete set of bee-keeping equipment to the participating farmers.

Dr. Abubakar advised the trained farmers to deploy the use of pollination services on their farms to enhance productivity and food security.

The minister restated the Federal Government’s commitment to supporting all value chains in the agriculture sector so as to ensure food security, job creation and increased income for farmers.

“The major aim of the training is to expose you to the use of bees as agents of pollination services to increase your production and hence more money for you,” said Dr. Abubakar.

He said such farmers leveraged integrated pollination services to boost their income and productivity.

“We want our farmers in the country to also get good value for engaging in the venture, hence this training.

“Bees’ pollination activities on fruits and vegetables could mean the difference between low and higher yields for farmers.

“The capacity-building would guide the farmers on how best to manage and overcome low crop yield.

“Capacity development is a key component activity towards achieving the goal of food and nutrition security as well as import substitution.” said the Minister of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, the Gombe State Chairman of the Federation of Bee Keepers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Yahaya Musa, on behalf of the trainees commended the Federal Government, describing the training as eye-opening for them, in view of the modern and technical knowledge they had acquired.

He assured on behalf of the union that members are committed to ensuring proper use of the technical information gathered at the training to improve their income and productivity.

A session was held for the participants to interact with officials of the ministry’s Horticulture Value Chain, the Gombe State Agricultural Development Programme and resource persons from the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadinkowa.