‘Edo Youth in Agriculture’ project trains cassava, vegetable farmers, others  

The Edo State Skills Development Agency (EdoJobs) has said the Edo Youth in Agriculture project has trained different batches of youths in cassava and vegetable farming as well as poultry production to contribute to the state’s food security programme.

Head, EdoJobs, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, who said this in a chat with journalists at the weekend, noted that the state government has made a lot of progress in building the capacity of youths to contribute to the state’s economy through agriculture.

According to her, “With the Edo Youth in Agriculture Project, we have trained youths in poultry production as well as cassava and vegetable farming. It is an experiential learning process where we teach the farmers how to farm high yield crops.

“We take them through the different stages of the farming process from soil preparation, nursery preparation, transplanting, maintenance and many others. They also go excursions and so on. After each batch is trained, they get the starter packs. For poultry, they got birds, feeders and drinkers. Those that benefitted from the cassava farming training have already planted an improved cassava variety, TME419.”

She said a new batch of vegetable farmers have just completed their training with their demonstration plot ready for harvest, noting, “The vegetable farmers are at the end stage of their training and the crops they planted is ready for harvest. The Edo Food and Agriculture Cluster (Edo-FAC) already has aggregators ready to purchase the cabbage, carrots and tomatoes.”

She said the state government’s holistic approach to agriculture development driven by youths is run through the Edo-FAC, which serves as aggregator for produce in the state.