WorldStage Newsonline– The Federal Government has trained and empowered 243 smallholder farmers in Katsina State with inputs to boost productivity under the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS).
Mr Temitope Fadeshemi, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said on Thursday in Katsina that the programme was part of efforts by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration toward reducing poverty across the country.
Fadeshemi was represented by Alh. Sani Bako-Fago, the State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Katsina state.
He said that smallholder farmers were not only the backbone of the agricultural sector, but critical to the nation’s prosperity.
“As we equip these smallholder farmers with the tools to enhance productivity, improve resilience and embrace sustainable practice, we are laying the foundation for a more resilient and prosperous agricultural sector,” he said.
He, therefore, urged the farmers to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during the training for the overall objective of the programme.
The farmers were trained on maize, tomato, pepper, okra value-chain, as well as poultry and fisheries.
Also speaking, Mr Sanusi Nadada, a representative of the Federal Department Agricultural Extension services (FDAE), said that they were in the state to supervise and ensure that only verified and validated farmers benefited from the empowerment programme.
Nadada said that 133 farmers received improved maize seeds, knapsack sprayers, one litre of organic fertiliser and two bottles of herbicides.
He said that 14 tomato farmers were empowered with improved tomato seeds, knapsack sprayer, organic fertiliser and two bottles herbicide each, with similar inputs distributed to pepper and okro farmers, respectively.
Nadada further revealed that 40 poultry farmers got 25 day-old chicks each and one bag of starter feeds, while 28 fish farmers recieved two bags of fish feeds each.
He urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the inputs, and warned them against selling of the items in order to attain the desired goal.
Some of the beneficiaries, Hamisu Adamu and Aisha Lawal, commended the government for the empowerment and promised to make good use of the items given to them.
