Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) under the Village Alive Development Initiative (VADI) has organized a four-day training programme for 200 selected farmers from Kwara and Oyo states as part of its ongoing interventions in the rural communities for grassroots farmers on value chain development and agribusiness.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the ARMTI Executive Director, Dr Olufemi Oladunni, says ARMTI has taken it upon itself to equip community farmers with requisite skills and empowerment to transform them from being just peasant farmers to agribusiness entrepreneurs to ensure optimal utilization and maximization of their individual agricultural enterprises.
Dr Oladunni also said that ARMTI through its Village Alive Development Programme (VADI) has been engaging rural farmers, with continuous and periodic training on a steady strategic march towards helping them upscale the magnitude of their agricultural enterprise.
“Each time a new innovation or technology is advanced, ARMTI takes it upon itself to extend and step it down to our rural farmers through its VADI programme. So, for this particular training, the sorghum value chain is the major focus. The training will allow beneficiaries to have in-depth knowledge on the harvest and post-harvest management of sorghum which includes the processing and marketing skills; a medium to unlock the huge potentials in agribusiness.
He further reiterated that if well practised by adequately trained practitioners, losses that occur in crop value chains will be minimal, also sorghum production can create wealth for these farmers as well as alleviate poverty, which in the long run will foster food security in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kwara State, Dr Aliyu Isa, said that the training is a necessity and bedrock on which the development of agriculture is achieved.
According to him, ARMTI over time has depicted knowledge of good agricultural practices from its research and training programmes.
Dr Aliyu then encouraged the farmers to have a receptive disposition towards the training as agriculture is paying off and Nigeria has become the leading producer of sorghum in Africa.
The ARMTI VADI coordinator, Mr Peter Toki, explained that the programme is one of the channels that ARMTI has been empowering rural communities involved in agricultural practices.
He added that the training is tailored to strategically address the gaps in agricultural produce as well as to the spaces in the agribusiness value chain in the sorghum harvest and post-harvest.
In attendance were the royal fathers from some of ARMTI VADI participating communities, Falokun-Oja, Amoyo, and Jimba-Oba.
Also, representatives of the ARMTI Management Committee were present at the commencement of the training.
The Training commences in Oyo state simultaneously and has about a hundred benefiting farmers participating in each state.
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