Horticulture College, MDGs train women on tomato production

Speaking during the training, the provost of the college, Dr. A. U. Gurama, said the College of Horticulture was established in 2002 and it is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa with its primary mandate being the training of middle level manpower and providing extension services to farmers.He said the training of the […]

Speaking during the training, the provost of the college, Dr. A. U. Gurama, said the College of Horticulture was established in 2002 and it is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa with its primary mandate being the training of middle level manpower and providing extension services to farmers.
He said the training of the 100 women and youth is one of the key training areas of the college called vocational training programme where youth, extension officers and farmers are trained in different areas of need.
“Our objective is to reduce cost of production and losses and increase farmers’ output unit areas. This we believe will generate more income, reduce poverty and improve the living standard of the farmers in line with the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the ministry,” he said.
In his speech at the occasion, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture represented by the Regional Director of Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) Arabi Mohammed, said the agricultural industry is undergoing a serious transformation of growth and wealth creation.
Mohammed said the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) financed the training while the Federal Ministry of Agriculture together with the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin Kowa organized the training for the benefit of the immediate community and the farmers.
He said that the Federal Government has concluded arrangements to establish staple food processing centre in Dadin Kowa.
Declaring the training open, Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo represented by the Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture, Buba Biri, said the need to bring the youth into farming is very important
Considering the fact that the old farmers are ageing, the need to bring in the youth into farming activities cannot be over emphasised, he said.