FG to train 3 million women, youths in agribusiness

The Federal Government has put plans in place to train three million women and rural youths in the area of agribusiness in 2018 across the country.

Director, Extension Services of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs. Karima Babangida, disclosed this recently in Kano at the selection and sensitisation of youths and women cooperatives for the first phase of the programme to be implemented in 24 states and Abuja.

He said the Federal Government would achieve the training through its Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise (LIFE) programme, which also aims at equipping beneficiaries with capacity and enhancing skills.

Speaking further at the event, he solicited the support of the Kano State government for the scheme. According to her, the programme was designed to tackle post-harvest losses while generating incomes and livelihood for beneficiaries.

She added: “The programme’s goal is to promote community-based on-farm and off-farm business activities as a model for job and wealth creation among women and youths in rural and suburban households. This will be done by linking beneficiaries to financial institutions, markets, capacity building and input.

“The initial primary focus of the programme is post-harvest loss prevention. To this end, a team comprising professional officers from the Ministry of Agriculture is here to fast track the immediate take-off of the programme.”

Under the programme, two cooperatives would be selected from two Local Government Areas from each of the three senatorial zones in the benefiting states.

In each LGA, two communities would be selected, based on comparative advantage for the priority agricultural produce of the state. The remaining 12 states would participate in the next phase of the programme.

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