The National Agricultural Land Development Authority(NALDA),says it is sending 200 young farmers to Israel and Morocco for capacity building in crop production and animal husbandry.
At the official handing over of travel documents to the beneficiaries in Abuja, the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, explained that the programme is a continuation of the National Young Farmers Scheme,(NYFS) which was flagged-off by President Muhammadu Buhari sometime ago.
He disclosed that the programme was in line with President Buhari’s directive to ensure that these youths are actively involved in food production, especially after the launch the NYFS, shortly after his inauguration.
He explained that the initiatives taken in the agricultural sector by the present administration have saved Nigeria from food scarcity, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
He reiterated that the aim of the programme was to make agriculture more attractive to the youth, as the training would expose and equip them on modern agricultural practices and agribusiness, which would in turn, lead to massive food production for Nigerians.
According to him, the initiative of sending 200 young farmers to Israel and Morocco was part of the new programme called “Aggressive Food Production” done in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.
He also said the youths who are drawn from the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja would be in these countries for six days while they undergo intensive training in greenhouse farming and animal husbandry.
He spoke on the rationale for choosing Israel and Morocco, saying that the two countries have the expertise in these areas.
The Federal Government paid all expenses for the trip, adding that it was captured in NALDA’s budget.
He said after the training,the young farmers would be back to their localities to train other young people in NALDA’s integrated farm estates in their areas.
He said: “The Federal Government is sending through NALDA 200 young farmers. It is a continuation of the National Young Farmers Scheme, NYFS, programme that Mr President flagged-off.And these 200 youths will be engaged in the process of learning proper crop production and greenhouse management, and 100 youths will be engaged in animal husbandry, slaughtering processing of meat.
“So we are sending them to countries that we know have strong expertise on what we are doing; Israel and Morocco, and this is to enhance their knowledge and to expose them to modern day practice in crop production and animal husbandry.So when this people go and get exposed, the next question will be, how will they be engaged and integrated?
“We already have a platform like the institutional properties, the land from the schools, state governments and their communities, definitely, it makes it easier for them to be integrated. They will be trained on general crop production and greenhouse management.They will begin to teach others this is what we saw there, this is how to do it and we will get better yield.
“So, NALDA’s own will be much different and beneficial to the country because we have where they will be integrated when they come back from the training. So, that is what makes NALDA’s programme more sustainable and unique.”
On the criteria used in the selection of 200 beneficiaries, the NALDA boss, said “We sent out messages to stakeholders, and the stakeholders selected and sent their names, and we are making sure that all the 36 states in the Federation would participate in this train so that it makes it easier when they come back from this training they would be able to train the people within their states and their localities.
“No matter what it costs to send people to get training, the most important thing is that we are building a new generation of farmers that would drive Nigeria’s agriculture going forward.