From Yaseer Ahmad, Dutse
The Federal ministry of Agriculture and food security collaboration with NIRSAL, trained 706 farmers and 355 extension agents in Jigawa state.
Speaking at the flagging off of the training held on Monday at Jigawa state Polytechnic Dutse, the managing director NIRSAL Alhaji Abbas Umar Masanawa said, the program is
under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP)/Jigawa Wheat Cluster Project.
He explained that, the beneficiaries include the cluster leaders from Kiyawa, Birnin Kudu, Ringim, Hadejia, and Kazaure took part in the first phase of the training sessions, which were held in four of the five emirates in Jigawa State.
According to him, the participants are expected to transmit the knowledge gained along with the training materials received to the members of their respective clusters.
He maintained that, NIRSAL Plc, established to de-risk agriculture and facilitate commercial finance for agribusiness in Nigeria, has developed several models for de-risking primary production in what it considers “the upstream segment of the agricultural value chain”.
“On our part, we are showing our readiness to support Jigawa State, and all other states, to walk the talk of the government. Here”, he continued, “we are contributing our expertise by preparing these extension agents and farmers to make success out of this collective endeavour for Jigawa’s and Nigeria’s sakes.”
Masanawa added that NIRSAL Plc does not intend to stop at capacity building alone, recalling his recent visit to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, CON, where he pledged support for the food security agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria through trainings, database building, innovation and more.
The first module in its capacity building package focused on Group Dynamics, with NIRSAL expecting the Project Implementation Committee and Extension Agents to adopt a geo-cooperative approach to cluster formation. Under this approach, farmers co
