Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(FMARD), says it has trained 60 young farmers on modern farming and production methodology of cassava, maize and rice in Ondo state.
A Director in FMARD in the state, Mrs Funke Omagbemi, made the disclosure on Monday while speaking in Akure.
She said the trainees were part of farmers drawn from Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Lagos states.
Omagbemi explained that the training would increase the recipients’ knowledge in modern farming skills required to guarantee bumper harvest in their respective states.
She noted that the concept of the training was to encourage young farmers to accept farming as a vocation.
According to her, aside the three crops chosen for the trainees, the acquired knowledge and skills will come in handy during production, processing, storage and marketing.
According to him, it will also add value to all agriculture products.
“Before now, about 50 per cent of our produce, usually perish due to lack of knowledge and preservation techniques.
“This year, the Federal Government has procured a lot of farming equipment for production, processing, storage and many other machines for farmers at subsidised rate, “she said.
Omagbemi also said that government had constructed and rehabilitated four roads and six boreholes in different communities as part of FMARD’s 2017/2018 projects in Ondo state.
“On annual basis, we normally have some projects being conducted by FMARD in the country but here in Ondo state, we have many of them being carried out.
“For 2017/2018 project, we have about eight projects such as road construction, rehabilitation, renovation and construction of boreholes in the state.
“1km surface dressing of road was constructed and consolidated at Akunu-Ajowa Akoko, Igedegede-Olojo Akoko and Lomitoto-Ureje, Ondo road, Akure while 2kms of road at Iyere-Ipele is in progress.
“We constructed one solar powered borehole, two back yard boreholes and three motorised boreholes with overhead plastic tanks in the six communities.’’
Omagbemi, who said that the efforts were to help farmers add value to their produce to enable them make profits.
She urged the farmers to develop maintenance culture and take proper care of the projects to derive maximum benefit from them. (NAN)
