Agriculture
THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Monday advised farmers to take agriculture as a serious business by adopting innovative strategies on information and technology to improve the market value of their products.
Mr Ibe Chukwuemeka, the Acting Secretary, FCTA, Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, gave the advice at a capacity building workshop on agribusiness development.
The workshop was organised for rural women, the youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and cooperative societies in the Gwagwalada Area Council.
Represented by Mr Yahaya Hussein, the Director Planning Research and Statistics in the secretariat, Chukwuemeka, said the workshop was organized to train farmers on how to move agricultural practices from mere production to investment in the value chain.
According to him, this will help increase the earnings of farmers and make them self-reliant.
“There is no aspect of agriculture that is not lucrative as long as our farmers efficiently channel their resources on the right investments and avoid wastages of products that could be easily transformed to other uses,’’ he said.
He stressed the need for farmers to form cooperative groups to enable them to reap the benefits of not only easily accessing support but also pooling their resources together for a bigger investment.
Chukwuemeka assured farmers of the commitment of the FCT under the leadership of the Minister, Muhammad Bello and the Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, to create the opportunities that would help them grow their various businesses.
Earlier, the Director, Department of Cooperative and Rural Development, Mr Innocent Ajaefobi, emphasised the role of small holder farmers in achieving food security.
Ajaefobi stressed that the workshop would afford participants an opportunity to acquire practical skills to facilitate the growth of their various agricultural vocations.
Also, Mr Omole Olateju, Deputy Director and Desk Officer, Rural Economy and Financing in the agriculture secretariat disclosed that the programme had been carefully designed to address the immediate challenges faced by rural farmers.
Olateju stated that the programme would dwell on topics such as agribusiness plan, the concept of agricultural value chain development for rural Agro-entrepreneurs.
Others are the importance of record-keeping in agribusinesses, credit/insurance support for smallholder rural Agro-enterprise amongst others.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, Alhaji Suleiman Ajayi, who described the programme as very timely in view of the current global economic crisis which has affected a lot of small businesses, thanked the FCT administration for organising it.
He said the programme would expose farmers to new trends and useful information that would enable them to make informed decisions that would help their businesses to grow. (NAN)
-Feb 15, 2021 17:58 AM
Tags: FCTA advises farmers to take agriculture as serious business
