FG to train local farmers in mechanised farming

The Federal Government is set to elevate the status of local farmers from subsistence to commercially-oriented farming through its Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase I (ATASP-1) project. The country representative of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Dr. Hakeem Ajeigbe, disclosed this at a two-day zonal meeting of the Kano-Jigawa Staple […]

The Federal Government is set to elevate the status of local farmers from subsistence to commercially-oriented farming through its Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase I (ATASP-1) project.

The country representative of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Dr. Hakeem Ajeigbe, disclosed this at a two-day zonal meeting of the Kano-Jigawa Staple Crop Processing Zone held in Kano.

Dr. Ajeigbe said the project, being funded by the Federal Government through the African Development Bank (AfDB), would be implemented in four selected Staple Crops Processing Zones across the country which: Adani-Omor (Enugu/Anambra), Bida-Badegi (Niger), Kebbi-Sokoto and Kano-Jigawa.

“The project has two components. We have the infrastructure development component and the outreach component. The first component focuses on rehabilitation of irrigation facilities, roads, schools, hospitals in the selected zones, while the outreach component will focus on production of cassava, rice and sorghum,” he added.

He said three reputable international research institutes were involved in the implementation of the outreach component of the project, saying, “The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) would lead the cassava component, African Rice for the rice component and ICRISAT would lead the sorghum component.