By Ginika Okoye
Abuja – The Federal Government says it will train 200,000 youths in agribusiness under phase one of its Agricultural Transformation Support Programme (ATASP-1).
Mr Haruna Akwashiki, the National Coordinator, ATASP-1, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that the youth would be selected from the 36 states and Abuja.
Akwashiki said the programme would encourage more youths in agriculture, create employment and improve agricultural technology.
ATASP-1 is a programme developed by the AfDB and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to improve food and nutrition security, employment generation and wealth creation along the rice, cassava and sorghum value chains.
He said the federal government would establish a training centre in Abuja, Kano and Rivers as part of effort to actualise the programme..
He said the ministry had trained 7,000 of the youths in different agricultural endeavors.
Akwashiki said the ministry would provide equipment at the centers to demonstrate new agricultural innovations and technology to the youths.
The coordinator said the youth would be trained on improved seeds production, practices of mechanised farming and how to handle the equipment.
“Part of our plan is to train 200,000 youths. So far, we have trained about 7,000 of them.
“We are aiming at food and nutrition security and employment generation. We want to generate at least 120,000 jobs from the three value chains we are working on.
“We also want to improve the productivity of our farmers and beneficiaries.
“We want to build capacity of farmers, build the capacity of processors and fabricators on different aspects of agriculture,’’ the coordinator said.
Akwashiki said the programme had in collaborations with farmers and processing companies encouraged the production of 70,000 tonnes of sorghum in 2016.
The coordinator also said that the programme had linked cassava and sorghum farmers to processors to purchase their produce, add value to them and take them to the markets.
He said the focus of the programme was to reduce the importation of rice, boost cassava and sorghum production and encourage exportation.
“In the area of rice value chain, we focused on the production of seeds For 2016.
“We trained some youths in seeds production technology and they produced about 3,000 tonnes of improved rice seeds.
“Our intervention is already impacting positively on the economy and our focus is to reduce the importation of rice.”
NAN reports that the programme is being co-funded by the Federal Government and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
While the Federal Government is contributing 23 million dollars, the bank would provide 152 million dollars.