•As farmers task FG on routine training
By Chinyere Anyanwu
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), in an effort to boost cassava and yam production in Rivers State, has trained over 100 farmers on smart cloud agriculture.
According to the Assistant Chief Agriculture Officer of the ministry, Iboroma Gloria, the training is part of efforts by the ministry to tackle climate change that has affected the general yield of products, especially yam and cassava.
Gloria, who spoke in Rivers State during a three-day training workshop titled, “Emergency Training and Demonstration of Climate Resilient Practices in Cassava and Yam Production and Empowerment of Farmers and Extension Agents”, said as a move to improve output and tackle climate change, it is important to start the early training of farmers on what period and type of seedlings to plant.
She said this will help farmers affected by last year’s flood crises on smart cloud agriculture to maximise agricultural production and profits.
She assured the farmers of the ministry’s maximum support in ensuring that the state bounces back to compete with other states in both yam and cassava production.
Also, a senior agriculture officer from FMARD, Amaibuama Orugbani, reiterated the Federal Government’s resolve to ensure the impact of climate change does not lead to food scarcity.
Orugbani said due to the state’s strides in cassava production, the Federal Government had deemed it fit to provide farmers with the latest technology to maximise cassava production and profits in the face of any flood occurrences.
He said, “the essence of today’s workshop is to train cassava and yam farmers in Rivers State with the new technology from the government, for them to be able to adopt it to improve their yield in cassava production in the state.
“This is because the climate changes occur all across the country including this state and it has been affecting the growth of cassava and that is the essence of today’s training.
“Although before now the Federal Government was putting some modalities in place in some MDA’s to see how they can assist farmers in the area of climate change.”
Some of the impacted farmers pleaded with the Federal Government to routinely train farmers and also take the training workshop down to the community level as some cassava farmers might not have the financial muscle to come down to the city for the training.
One of the beneficiaries who gave his name as Stanley Echie said, “my own view is that the training should be decentralised, if possible, to Local Government Area levels because it is not everybody that can find their way to cities.”