Kaduna farmers trained on crop processing, preservation

The post harvest training, he said, will focus on how to harvest for maximum profit and it will also help them to become self-employed.“Unemployment is the problem of any developing country including Nigeria, so we are trying to see how we can reduce unemployment through self employment options. So far, this year, the directorate has […]

The post harvest training, he said, will focus on how to harvest for maximum profit and it will also help them to become self-employed.
“Unemployment is the problem of any developing country including Nigeria, so we are trying to see how we can reduce unemployment through self employment options. So far, this year, the directorate has trained over a thousand people,” he said.
One of the facilitators of the training, Sylvester Ikemoye, who is a Rural Employment Promotion Officer from NDE, stated that the essence of the training is to help the 50 participants understand the essence of storage as well as expose them to the various methods of crop preservation after harvest.
“They need to know what to do to preserve their crops after harvesting from the farm so that they can have a good market.There are some crops that require certain means of storage, for instance you can’t just store maize anyhow, but there are some things on the moisture content you must make sure it reduces before storage. We are working on cereals, legumes and vegetable,” he explained.
Dauda Sambo, a trainee who is into fishery and crop production, noted that the challenges associated with crop production include lack of capital because crop production is capital intensive.
“In trying to cope, one needs a reasonable capital to be able to function well and when you harvest your products, the market in some cases does not help matters, in fact that makes it impossible for some people to go on because you need to employ labour to help you do the work, considering that tractor hiring services are not available,” he lamented.