FG Trains 200 Youths Abroad On Crop Production, Animal Husbandry

The National Agricultural Lands  Development Authority (NALDA) said it has sent 200 young farmers for capacity building on crop production and animal husbandry to Israel and Morocco.
This is part of the continuation of the National Young Farmers Scheme, (NYFS) programme that President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off some months ago.
Speaking during the official handing over of travel documents to the beneficiaries in Abuja, the Executive Secretary, NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, explained that it is a continuation of the NYFS programme that President Buhari flagged off sometime ago.
He said the programme assisted Nigeria in terms of food availability during the emergence of the novel Covid-19 pandemic, which prevented Nigeria from begging food from  other countries
The NALDA scribe said the aim is also to make agriculture more attractive to the youths as the training will expose and equip them on modern agriculture and agribusiness, which will lead to massive food production for Nigerians and for more exportation of food.
Ikonne further said sending the 200 young farmers to Israel and Morocco is part of the new programme called ‘Aggressive Food Production’ in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
He also said that the youths who are drawn from the 36 states of the federation will be there for six days while they undergo intensive training on greenhouse farming and animal husbandry,  explaining that Israel and Morocco were chosen because they have the expertise in these areas.
“We are running a programme we call ‘Aggressive Food Production’ and this we are doing in collaboration with the Ministry of Education as the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, is providing us with land from the universities for this.
“So, we are sending them to countries that we know have string expertise on what we are doing, Israel and Morocco.  This is to enhance their knowledge and expose them to modern day practice in crop production and animal husbandry.
“200 young farmers would be sent for capacity building in Israel and Morocco. When these people go and get exposed, the next question will be how will you  engaged and integrate them?.
“We already have a platform like the institutional properties, the land from the schools, state governments and their communities, which will definitely make it easier for them to be integrated.
“They will begin to teach others what they saw there and how to do it and get  better yield.
“NALDA’s own will be much different and beneficial to the country because we have where they will be integrated when they come back from the training. That is what makes NALDA’s programme more sustainable and unique”, he stated.
Explaining the criteria used to select the 200 young farmers, Ikonne said “we sent out messages to stakeholders, and the stakeholders selected and sent their names, and we are making sure that all the 36 states in the federation would participate in this training so as to  be able to train the people within their state and their locality”.
He, however, made it clear that, “the training is budgeted for in our budget because what ever that is not budgeted for cannot be implemented. The most important thing we have budgeted is the capacity building.
“No matter what it cost to send people to get training, the most important thing is we are building a new generation of farmers that would drive Nigeria’s agriculture”, he said.
The NALDA boss charged the 200 youths to be good ambassadors of Nigeria, charging them to focus on what they would be trained on, saying that they have a great task to deliver when they return as far as training other young farmers back home is concerned.
Some of the beneficiaries spoke on the training and what they expect after the training.
Hassan Atiku, a farmer from Katsina State, said “I cultivate maize and millet beside foodstuff. I am very happy that I am one of the beneficiaries to this trip. I want to appreciate the effort of the President by building youth capacity on agriculture because building the youths is building the nation. I am ready to acquire more knowledge on crop production”.