FG wants farmers to go beyond seasonal production

The federal government says it is strengthening the capacity of farmers to go beyond seasonal production in order to sustain the country’s agro-economic diversification. 

The Managing Director, Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Engineer Adeniyi Saheed Aremu, stated this at a 4-day capacity training and extension services for water users and other stakeholders in Ilorin, Kwara State. 

“We don’t want seasonal farmers again; we want you to produce all year round. As you know, food is a basic requirement. Years ago we needed food, today we need food and in the future we still need food and we will continue to need food as the population is growing,” he said. 

Speaking on the land border closure, the MD said the increase in prices of local rice for now was because the local demand outweighed supply, adding that “we want a way to increase production.” 

Dr Aremu said the training will help extension workers to train farmers on how to use water, crop water requirement and other things so that they can make maximum use of the available land infrastructure the river basin has. 

Dr Ahmed A. Zik-Rullahi, CEO of Amzik Integrated Nigeria Ltd, the consulting firm, said the programme highlighted Nigeria’s economic growth; capacity development through agriculture and integrated water resources management. 

He said the training strengthened the capacity of the extension service personnel and other stakeholders in water management for irrigation and fish farming, soil management for production, farm security, insurance, conflict management  as well as public-private partnership for agricultural production.   

DAILY TRUST