NIRSAL trains over 2000 farmers in four states

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Over 2,000 farmers in the four states of Oyo, Imo, Sokoto, and Kwara have been trained by the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture Lending (NIRSAL).

Head of Corporate Communications, Jude Nnadozie, spoke to newsmen in Owerri on Tuesday during a one-day training of over 500 farmers in the Owerri and Aboh Mbaise council areas.

He said that the training was part of NIRSAL’s strategy to facilitate agribusiness in Nigeria.

He stated: “In line with its mandate to de-risk agriculture and facilitate agribusiness in Nigeria, NIRSAL Plc has completed a midyear capacity development programme for agricultural value chain actors, particularly lead farmers and extension agents in the aquaculture and cassava value chains across locations in Imo, Sokoto, Kwara, and Oyo States.”

He explained that the train-the-trainer programme, which had over 2,000 participants, is intended to impact a further 40,000 farmers during the step-down phase.

He added: “With the programme, NIRSAL set out to sensitise the participants on its value chain-fixing solutions, especially the Agro Geo-Cooperative® (AGC) model, which structures smallholder farmers cultivating in the same locations into financeable clusters with elaborate governance structures, thereby enhancing their capacity to access finance, inputs, and mechanisation services, optimise their harvests and produce aggregation, and boost their access to secured markets.”

According to him, in Imo State, where 250 participants assembled in Owerri on day one and no less than 350 at the Umuofuga Umuhu Okwuato Multipurpose Hall in Aboh-Mbaise on day two, the focus was on efficient models for fish production. It was the same in Sokoto State, while the Oyo and Kwara outings focused on cassava.

The Imo State House of Assembly Committee Chairman on Agriculture, Hon. Uche Agabiga, lauded NIRSAL, stating, “For including Imo in this round of the capacity building programme, we believe that it would complement local efforts aimed at boosting agricultural productivity in the state.”

The Head of Value Chain Capacity Development at NIRSAL, Mr Ibrahim Suleiman, said in his submission that under the Technical Assistance pillar of its mandate, NIRSAL is working towards reaching 100,000 fish, cassava, and rice farmers across the country this year with its training on the optimisation of agro-geo-cooperatives to support the Federal Government’s food security agenda.

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