The African Union Development Agency and New Partnership for Africa Development (AUDA/NEPAD) have commenced the training of Three thousand smallholder farmers in Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
The training programme was flagged off in Calabar, the Cross River State capital by Governor Bassey Otu for smallholder farmers selected from the seven local government areas constituting the southern senatorial district.
The State Coordinator of the AUDA-NEPAD, Dr. Michael Abuo, who represented the governor, said the project referred to as “Innovative Strengthening of Smallholder Farmers Initiative” is to boost the economy of the farmers.
“This initiative is a 5 year project, which is targeted at 3 thousand farmers in crop cultivation and livestock production. We have selected One thousand farmers per senatorial district as beneficiaries.
“It is also important to state here that the Cross River State government has provided a counterpart fund of 3.5 billion naira for this project, which is expected to improve productivity despite being subsistence farmers,” he said.
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He further explained that the beneficiary farmers would be taught best practices in digital agriculture and marketing, climate smart farming, financial inclusion, agriculture insurance, irrigation and water management amongst others.
Local economy
The guest speaker and Dean, Faculty of Agriculture and Wild Life Resources Management at the University of Calabar, Professor Susan Ohen urged governments to be deliberate in developing the capacities of subsistence farmers to drive local economies.
Professor Ohen, who was speaking on the topic “Enhancing Agricultural Productivity among Smallholder Farmers in Cross River state”, stressed that this category of farmers have the capacity to guarantee food security and internally generated revenue.
She stated, “the local economy is driven by small holder farmers. We must be deliberate in supporting or encouraging them inorder to further drive the local economy to a higher level.”
She urged the beneficiaries to take advantage of innovations in agriculture and embrace best practices to minimise cost and contribute to a safer, clean and green environment.
Also speaking, the National Coordinator of AUDA-NEPAD, Jabiru Abdullahi, said that the training has been designed to enhance yield among subsistence farmers in Cross River State.
While urging beneficiaries to translate the knowledge acquired and subsequent grants to increased production, the national coordinator noted that the result of the first phase of disbursement would determine the next intervention.
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