The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in collaboration with National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services on Monday inaugurated a four-day training for 1,110 extension agents in Gwagwalada, FCT.
The Acting Director, FCT-Agricultural Development Project, Nwokedi Fidelis, at the inauguration, said training the agents on tools, methodologies and agricultural value chains would go a long way to increase the knowledge and skills of potential agents in the ministry.
According to him, it is expected that at the end of the training, agricultural production and income of the rural farmers across 36 states of the federation and FCT, will boost food security in the country.
“It gives me great pleasure and privilege to welcome you all to the Inauguration training of 1,110 extension workers in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“I wish to express thanks and gratitude to the Minister of Agriculture for taking this step towards addressing the neglect of agricultural extension services which is the backbone of production and productivity.
“The extension agents should put in their best so that food security will increase in the country, which is the basic factor of agricultural production and productivity in the country”.
Professor Johnson Onyibe, the resource person of the training, said there was need to have capable hands to coach the farmers to increase agricultural production and productivity in the country.
Onyibe said yam, maize, rice and livestock were critical value chains for FCT.
He said after the training, the participants would have improved motivation to deliver in their acquired skills by conducting training for another range of extension agents.
“FCT is very critical to us and we need to feed the population and we also understand that unless we have capable hands to coach our farmers in order to achieve the purpose.
“What we are trying to do here is to build the capacity of extension agents to enable us increase food security and production in the country.
“After the training, we expect that agricultural production and income of rural farmers across the 36 states of the federation and FCT will be boosted, which will lead to achieving food security in Nigeria”.
Mrs Grace Yusuf, a participant thanked the ministry for organising the training and promised to use the knowledge acquired for food production and security in the country.
