When ATASP-1 engaged youths in agribusiness

As Nigeria is diversifying its economy from oil to agriculture, youths have been the major target by the government to drive the agricultural sector as business. This idea is borne out of the fact that the age of an average farmer in Nigeria is 65, which poses danger to food security if that generation of farmers becomes unproductive in the farms.

To this end, the government has engaged in various programmes aimed at attracting youths into agriculture by providing farm machineries to make the sector less stressful and attractive.

The Agriculture Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase – 1 (ATASP-1) is one of the programmes of the government to train the youths on various agricultural value chains, thereby empowering them to be independent in seed production.

According to the National Program Coordinator, Haruna  Akwashiki, “the objective of this training is to train young farmers in the seven participating states as seeds entrepreneurs on rice, cassava and sorghum. The training will run concurrently in three centres. A total of 200 youth farmers will be trained and empowered. This is one of the sustainability measures put in place.”

He said this intervention would provide employment, enhance productivity and income and wealth creation along the commodity value chains for our beneficiaries and teaming youths.

Akwashiki noted that seeds are basic input for all crop production and they play a major role in determining the level of crop yields and farmers’ investment, the availability of improved seeds/planting materials at the right time and quality is crucial to enhancing agricultural production and productivity for food security and poverty alleviation in Nigeria.

“However, one of the major challenges facing rural in ATASP-1 intervention area is the shortage of quality seeds, where they are available, the cost is beyond the reach of the farmers,” he added.

So far in rice production, the ATASP-1 has established 37 rice demonstration plots covering 24.45 hectares in 43 locations across the four Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZs) in 2016 cropping season. A total of 74 rural communities participated in the community sensitisation on rice value chain activities. 8,317 beneficiaries have been trained along rice value chain activities.

“In order to purify and strengthen the rice seeds system, ATASP-1 developed a collaborative relationship with 15 Nigerian seed companies and 9 of them consequently received breeder and foundation seeds for multiplication,” the national coordinator said.

A total of 7.5 metric tons of rice breeder’s seeds and 20 metric tons of rice foundation seeds were distributed to rice out-growers through the seed companies in 2016 for production/multiplication in different locations, according to him.

The four varieties planted are Faro 44, Faro 52, Faro 60, Faro 61. Eight youth groups who were trained on Good Agriculture Practices (GAP), cultivated 58 hectares of rice sees in 2016. The seeds produced by the youths are being distributed to farmers for planting in 2017 cropping season. Overall 925.93 hectares were cultivated with improved rice varieties in 2016. A total of 3,240.76 tons of rice seeds were produced for distribution to rice farmers in 2017.

The rice value chain also trained 28 fabricators at National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM), Ilorin, Kwara State.

On cassava value chain recorded a total of 52 demonstration plots covering 60.6 hectares across the ATASP-1 SCPZs, was recorded.  The cutting will be distributed this year.

Also, a total of 727.2 tons of roots will be available. The cassava varieties being promoted include TME 419, TMS 98/0505,TMS 07/0593, TMS 91/0202324, TMS 98/0581, TMS 4(2)1425 and TMS 98/289.

Furthermore, a total of 1,249 beneficiaries from 18 communities participated in the community sensitization on the concept of cassava value chain activities in ATASP-1.

The value chain also capacitated 3,931 beneficiaries on GAP and other cassava value chain activities in the participating states.

Sorghum value chain established 597 demonstration plots covering 224 hectares in 118 communities involving a total of 11,940 farmers in the activity. Sorghum varieties being promoted are CSR-01, Samsorg 17, IT99K-573-1-1, ICSV 400, Samsorg 14 and KSV-8.

A buyback arrangement of commercial grains with Honeywell Flour Mill and Northern Nigeria Flour Mill led to distribution of 105.4 metric tons of two sorghum varieties (CSR-01 and Samsorg 17) to 13,175 farmers covering 13,175 hectares. Overall, 46,522 hectares of sorghum were cropped and 69,783 tons of grains were produced in 2016.

The Head of International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Abuja Station, Grassley Tarawali said “the aim of  the  Program  is  to  transform  Nigeria’s  cassava,  rice,  and  sorghum  sectors through  a  novel  Outreach  Program  being  pioneered  by  three  CGIAR  Centers (IITA,  AfricaRice,  and  ICRISAT)  and  their  national  research  partners  (NRCRI, NCRI,  and  IAR,  respectively).

He said an input fair was also organized for three days in Kano that brought seed companies and other agro-input dealers together to display and sell their products directly to farmers.

“Under  skills  acquisition  enhancement,  the  commodity  specialists  have conducted training workshops on crop utilization and value addition for women  and  the  youth  in  all  the  four  SCPZs  as  income  generating activities.

“ATASP-1  has  a  vibrant  youth  group  that  is  currently  promoting  the ATASP-1  commodities  (cassava,  rice,  sorghum)  and  other  enterprises such as vegetables, fish farming, and poultry. These initiatives are being used as a training platform for all young people nationwide.  To support this initiative, the ATASP-1 constructed three Youth Training Centres for Agribusiness in Abuja, Kano, and One.

“The seed production training workshop. Now moving to the business of the week, on the training of youth farmers on seed production technology, I wish to say that seeds are the most important input in crop production and 50% gain in productivity is attributable to the use of improved seeds,” he said.

Tarawali said good quality seed is critical and vital input essential to enhance the productivity of any crop.  He noted that in Nigeria,  research  institutes  have developed a  wide  range  of  superior  high  yielding  and  disease/stress-tolerant varieties.

“Regrettably, the benefits of these improved seeds have not been maximised by farmers due to the non- availability of high quality germplasm of these varieties. Of all the challenges that stand between us and self-sufficiency in food production, unavailability of sufficient quantities of seeds and the use of poor quality seeds are our worst constraints,” he said.

“In  the  ATASP-1  Outreach  Program,  we  are  supporting  capacity  development activities in the seed sector to increase the availability of improved agricultural seed  for  priority  commodities.  Such an initiative will provide employment, enhance income and create for the teaming numbers of youth,” he added.