ARMTI trains North-Central youths, women in agribusiness

AGRICULTURAL and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, has trained a set of 40 youths and 40 women selected from communities in the North-Central geoplotical zone of the country in agribusiness development.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of the one-week training programme, the chief executive director of the institute, Dr. Olufemi Oladunni, said that part of strategies to curb youth restiveness and unemployment in the country is to encourage new generation farmers, especially the youths.

The ARMTI boss, who said that the course was designed to build capacity of youth in agribusiness development projects for self-reliance, added that it would equip participants with concept of agribusiness development.

“The course also include agribusiness plan design and development, mobilisation and management of fund for agribusiness and strategies or effective and efficient management of agribusiness. Among other things, the training workshop covered such areas as strategies to: identify, choose and manage agripreneurship for sustainable livelihood using available resources in their communities”, he said.

Also, a set of 40 women farmers drawn from communities in Kwara state were trained in agripreneurship development by the ARMTI, a parastatal of then ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

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Dr. Oladunni said at the event that the aim of the training was to improve capacity of the selected women with relevant knowledge and skills required to utilise, develop and manage various agribusiness sustainably.

“The training workshop covered such areas as strategies to identify, choose and manage their own agripreneurship for sustainable livelihood using available resources in their communities; help formulate, design and develop workable business plans along chosen agricultural value chain for grants and bank credits; mobilisation and management of fund for sustainable enterprises, and equip the women on how to leverage ICT for agribusiness development. They were also equipped with technical skills needed to manage their agribusiness and techniques to enhance sales of their agricultural produce”, he said.

He charged participants to be hardworking and prudent with their finances in order to excel in small and medium scale agribusinesses as producers, processors or marketers

Dr. Oladunni, who commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for supporting the institute to carry out its mandates, said that the institute would continue to run various agribusiness development programmes for women and youth as a stopgap for gainful employment.

The ARMTI boss also described prevalent border closure as the best thing to happen to agriculture in Nigeria.

“What people bring through border, aside its low quality, competes with our own products and agricultural produce. When you’re bringing in agricultural produce from better environment than ours, it would come cheap because they produce at lower cost. Our goods won’t be able to compete because ours will be expensive. So, our farmers would be rendered ineffective, unemployed. Now, when we patronise our farmers, they would improve on their productivity, generate revenue to the economy and even plan to export.

He charged the FG to be focused and not to be distracted by critics of border closure, saying Nigeria people and farmers would be better for it in the long run.

In his reaction on behalf of the participants, the class captain, Mr. Ifuoke Elukpo, appreciated the institute and the federal government for the training workshop, saying that the training would have positive impact on their agribusiness.

Nigerian Tribune