Nigeria:
WAAP-Nigeria Equips 50 Farmers With New Technology
The West Africa Agricultural
Productivity Programme (WAAPP-Nigeria), has presented a new technology to 50 farmers
from the North-west zone of Nigeria.
National Project Coordinator,
WAAPP-Nigeria, Dr James Ocheme Apochi, said at the event in Katsina that the
objective of the project was to generate technologies and build the capacity of
farmers in order to increase agricultural productivity.
"My joy will be that this
technology that we are going to give to you today, you should take advantage
and make use of it because if we develop technology and the farmers do not put
it to use, it means the money we put into research is a waste," he stated.
The programme is training 50
unemployed youths and women from each of the six geo-political zones of the
country on selected technologies based on raw materials of comparative
advantage in each of the zones.
For the North-west, it is sorghum
processing into different beverages (production, packaging and preservation),
tomato processing and 'Zobo' production, packaging and preservation.
Some of the technologies include
sorghum malting and tomato processing machines among others.
The director-general, Federal
Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, Lagos, Dr Gloria Elemo, whose speech
was read by James Mordi, said the institute had developed over 250 indigenous
technologies covering virtually all the agro-commodities in the country.
The special assistant to the
minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on Donor Agencies, Mr. Auta Appeh
said WAAPP as a programme played very important role in the green alternative
that has been launched by the federal government.
Some of the beneficiaries expressed
gratitude to WAAPP for changing their lives, adding that the technologies
received would be put to use for employment generation in their communities.
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