Over 150,000 farmers from the Niger Delta region including Ondo State are being trained in modern technologies in the agricultural sector to boost their capacity and incomes.Already, Ondo state government has approved N60million for the Agro-women initiative in this years budgetThe Manager, Advocacy, Communication and Public sector Engagement for the Market Development Programme (MADE) in the Niger Delta region, Fidelis Ekom disclosed that out of the figure, 75,000 which represent 50 percent shall be female farmers in order to increase their income and to ensure they have a means of livelihood.Ekom stated this in Akure, the Ondo state capital during a workshop training of agro-women initiative organised by the Life and Peace Development Organization (LAPDO) in collaboration with PERL, DFID, MADE and Ondo state Agricultural Development Projects, (ADP).Speaking on a paper titled, opportunities at MADE for Adoption under the Agro-women Initiative, the MADE official said training of farmers on best ways to carry out their business in the sector. For instance, there are new technologies on how to process palm oil and smoking of fish, such will earn farmers more income and optimize their returns.Read Also:CBW charges women on electionHe said at the end of the day, our target is to see how we can reach over 150,000 farmers in the Niger Delta region, 50 per center of whom should be women, to increase their income and to ensure they have a means of livelihood.Ekom said we work in the market system where we try to address challenges that associated with market system, for instance in the areas of fishery, cassava, poultry, palm oil, we intervene in the provision of the right agric inputs like fertilizer, product services to farmers.In an address, Franklin Oloniju of the Life and Peace Development Organization (LAPDO), saidAgro-women initiative is a budget line dedicated for women, noting that in 2019 budget of the State government, a sum of N60million was allocated for the project.According to Oloniju, Ondo state is the only state in Nigeria that has done that for female farmers, stating that the essence of the training is to ensure that women farmers develop their own work plan, especially now that Ondo state governments 2019 budget has been passed.LAPDO boss said, we now feel that it is not going to be good to just be only the government and ADP that will say what the money will be used for, rather bring the women together let them tell us what they want the money to be used for, let them say particular commodities they are look at, that is why they in the training, to develop a work plan.Luckily for us, because of what ADP is doing with us, International partners are also interested, we have MADE supported by DFID, PERL which is also the programme of DFID is co-funding this initiative and we have participants drawn from all the 18 local government in Ondo stateOne of the resource persons and former State Commissioner for women affairs, Mrs Yinka Alabi, described the agro-women initiative as timely and laudable.The Desk Officer, Agro-women Initiative at ADP, Mrs Bola Ajibade stressed the need to develop workplan for proper implementation of the agro-women project.Also,the state Programme Manager, ADP, Mr Babalola Adeniyan, the ondo state Commissioner for budget & Economic planning as well as the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor on agriculture, Akin Olotu delivered goodwill messages at the training.
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