Food Security: FG Okays 200 Youths for Training in Israel, Morocco

Food Security: FG Okays 200 Youths for Training in Israel, Morocco

The National Agricultural Lands Development Authority (NALDA) yesterday handed out travel documents to 200 young farmers to proceed on a capacity building trip on crop production and animal husbandry in Israel and Morocco.

The Executive Secretary of NALDA,  Prince Paul Ikonne,  at the ceremony,  said the gesture was a continuation of the National Young Farmers Scheme (NYFS) which was recently inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said the capacity building initiative was aimed at making agriculture more attractive to the youths, adding that it will also expose and equip them on modern agriculture and agribusiness practices.

This,  Ikonne said, would hopefully lead to massive food production to meet domestic consumption as well as for export.

Buhari,  had during the inauguration of the NYFS, directed the authority to ensure the youths are actively involved in food production.

The scheme targeted 1,000 farmers from each of the 774 Local Government Areas, to  create 774,000 direct employment annually.

Ikonne,  pointed out that the scheme contributed in saving Nigeria from a major food shortage  during the COVID-19 pandemic,  adding that the country would have gone cap in hand begging other countries for food.

Speaking at the ceremony,  the NALDA boss,  stressed that sending the young farmers to Israel and Morocco was part of a new project tagged, “Aggressive Food Production” in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

He also said the beneficiaries,  drawn from the 36 States of the federation, will be outside the country for six days  to  undergo intensive training on greenhouse farming and animal husbandry.

He explained that Israel and Morocco were chosen because they have the expertise in these areas.

According to him,  all expenses are paid by the federal government as contained in NALDA’s budget, adding that they will be back to their localities to train other young people on integrated farm estates in their areas.

Ikonne 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.”

He said: “And these 200 youths will be engaged in the process of learning proper crop production and greenhouse management, and 100 youth 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 200 young farmers would be sent for capacity building in Israel and Morocco.

“So, when this people go and get exposed, the next question will be how will you be engaged and integrated because 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.”