The Akwa Ibom government has made its readiness known to lease out government lands to farmers in the state to assist them to expand their agribusinesses in term of improved crop, livestock and fish production and management.
Dr
Glory Edet, the State Commissioner for Agriculture, stated this in Uyo while
kick-starting an open training programme for farmers on smart farming,
precision and sustainable agriculture.
The
training was organized by the ministry of agriculture, in collaboration with
Agribusiness Enterprise Development Programme (AEDP).
Edet
said that the vision of the Gov. Udom Emmanuel-led administration was to
eliminate hunger in the state through improved agriculture that would drive
income growth.
“Farmers’
training essentially contributes to human resource development in agriculture
and as well address the basic needs of farmers.
“The
state government’s policy thrust is on growing the agricultural sector through
various commodity value chains to generate employment opportunities. Hence, the
focus on the development of agricultural value chain through capacity building.
“AEDP
is to ensure adequate training of farmers for increased productivity as well as
the establishment of Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZs) in the state,’’ she
said.
According
to her, the training will enable farmers and agribusiness owners to develop ideas
and gather relevant information about agribusiness enterprises so as to
determine the real market demands for their agricultural produce.
The Commissioner urged participants to make maximum use of the training by paying
attention to the resource persons and adoption of the innovations, technologies
and techniques that they would be exposed to.
Earlier
in his remarks, the Programme Director, AEDP, Mr Ekanikpong Ben, said that the
agency was providing capacity building in agriculture through business and
technical trainings.
He
said that the agency had also introduced farmers to various technologies and
innovations in agriculture in order to meet the increase in demand for food.
“The
programme’s mission is to create jobs, increase competitiveness as well as
promote sustainable and inclusive growth through the acceleration of agribusiness
training programmes, with technological integration for the transformation of
the agric sector in the state and in Nigeria generally,” he said.
The
programme director listed the areas of coverage during the programme to include
improved crop, livestock and fish production and management as well as
agribusiness development and technology application in agriculture, amongst
others.
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