The Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA), Bayero University Kano, on Tuesday, trained women and youth farmers on agroecological best practices to enhance food production.
The Director of CDA, Prof. Jibrin Mohammed-Jibrin, said the three-day training was for Northwest farmers to access skills to improve their farming techniques without causing harm to the environment.
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The training had the theme: “Environmentally Sustainable Agroecological Practices in Nigeria.
“This training is mainly on how to improve our farming system and maintain our ecosystem.
“It is very important because the decade 2021 to 2030 is the United Nations’s Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.
“In recent years, we have had a lot of challenges with our ecosystem, with areas around Kano, Jigawa and Bauchi states witnessing huge loss of biodiversity.
“The charcoal business in recent times is also a cause for concern,” Mohammed-Jibrin said.
The Coordinator, National Programme for Food Security, Mr Yarima Sa’idu, said the training was aimed at supporting farming households to boost their food security for national food sufficiency.
“Agroecological programme is aimed at increasing food/fisheries production and agro-sylvo-pastoral through diversified and sustainable production systems with reduction in post-harvest production losses.
“The agroecology programme is managed by ECOWAS and coordinated by the Regional Agency of Agriculture and Food (ARAA) Togo-Lome,” he said.
According to Sa’idu, the programme will support farming families to boost their staple food production capacity on an environmentally sustainable basis.
“The crux of agroecology programs and practices is the conservation of our natural environment,” he added.
The coordinator urged the participants to apply the skills and practices acquired in their everyday agricultural life to mitigate the negative implications of climate change.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security through the National Programme for Food Security in collaboration with CDA organised the training.
