IFDC trains farmers on modern rice farming

Speaking to newsmen yesterday in Badegi, Niger State, the IFDC programme manager, Ihuoma Ugwu, said IFDC intervention programme is going on in three selected states of  Kwara, Kaduna and Niger.According to her, the intervention which was based on state’s area of agricultural comparative advantage was carried out in collaboration with Syngeta, an agro-allied company. She […]

Speaking to newsmen yesterday in Badegi, Niger State, the IFDC programme manager, Ihuoma Ugwu, said IFDC intervention programme is going on in three selected states of  Kwara, Kaduna and Niger.
According to her, the intervention which was based on state’s area of agricultural comparative advantage was carried out in collaboration with Syngeta, an agro-allied company.
She said her organisation’s intervention in Niger and Kwara states was in the area of rice whereas in Kaduna the programme focused on maize.
She added that mass field days were usually conducted on established demonstration fields to show to the farmers the importance of improved agronomic practices.
On Niger, she said farmers have embraced the improved method of rice farming, adding that they received training on how to apply agro-inputs for high yields.
She said the result recorded in the activities of smallholder farmers that keyed into the innovation was quite encouraging, adding: “Our rice farmers have started harvesting more than 50 percent of what they used to get on the same farmland. They are anxious to know more about the new methods and the use of Syngenta products.”
The programme manager said that with the increase in rice yield, the importation of rice will soon be a thing of the past in the country, insisting that rice farmers from the state can feed the country.