Dutse – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) are to train 870 extension workers, their supervisors and farmers leaders in Jigawa.
The Commissioner for Agriculture in Jigawa, Alhaji Kabiru Ali, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Dutse.
“The training is to prepare farmers for the cluster farming operation introduced by the state government to produce Sesame, Rice, Groundnut and Soya beans.
“The state government will engage farmers through the farmers associations to cultivate the four major crops on 14,350 hectares across the state.
“Fifty hectares of land each would be made available to farmers in the 287 wards of the state to cultivate the crops,’’ Ali said.
According to him, NIRSAL would train the beneficiaries on modern agricultural development practices through crops value chain, which would give the state a comparative advantage.
The commissioner explained that while NIRSAL would be the major sponsor of the training, the state government would provide training items like tapes, insecticides, planters, threshers and certified seeds.
He said the government would also provide office and house accommodation for the NIRSAL trainers.
Ali explained that from the meeting held by the ministry with NIRSAL officials on the programme, the training venues and many more had been identified.
He said that the ministry and the NIRSAL officials were satisfied with the modalities on the ground.
According to him, the state government intends to assist farmers’ right from farm preparations up to the time of harvesting.
“The government will not give farmers’ cash, but rather will provide them with all the needed farm inputs.
“The farmers will be expected to pay back after they must have harvested and sold the produce,’’ the commissioner added.
He said for the training programme, which will commence on May 23, the beneficiaries would be required to fill and sign an agreement form with the government.
Ali said the form would contain a list of what each of the farmers collected from the government.
He said the farmers were expected to produce four tonnes against the normal two tonnes per hectare using modern knowledge and equipment.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Jigawa Government had recently distributed 450 motorcycles to extension workers in the state and their supervisors for programme. (NAN)