N-Power programme builds up farmers’ skills
...as NAERLS trains 774 master trainers on extension services
The National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) has concluded the training of 774 Agro Master Trainers on the use of modern technologies for effective extension service delivery in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The capacity building is part of the Federal Government’s Agro N-Power Programme to revive the ailing extension services in the country, which has affected the country’s agricultural productivity since the collapse of extension service delivery system in the 1980s.
In an interactive session with stakeholders, Director General of NAERLS, Professor Mohammed Khalid Othman, said the exercise, which was part of the Federal Government’s Agricultural Development Plans being executed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, trained 774 extension personnel as Master Trainers for the 30,000 youths engaged under the Agro N-Power Programme.
Commenting further on the Agro N-Power Training Programme, the DG explained that the objective of training the Master Trainers, selected from each local government across the country, was that they would go on to train about 30,000 unemployed Nigerians in agricultural extension and advisory services.
Professor Othman further explained that the goal of the programme was to create jobs, as well as improve extension and agricultural advisory services for sustainable agricultural development in Nigeria.
He said the agricultural sector; “is one of the critical sectors in the first phase of the N-Power Programme because it is capable of employing more than half of the nation’s unemployed graduates in the areas of farming, livestock and fishery, dairy production and advisory service delivery.”
In the south-west and south-east states, at least 15 participants per state attended the training which started on May 15, 2017, and ended on May 19. Not less than 185 resource persons were deployed with five resource persons per state.
The training was a 10-Module package which included lectures on fishery, agri-business and extension communication. Others were nutrition, gender and food security.
There was also group work and discussions which were used to stimulate full participation from all the trainees. Many of the participants were optimistic that the N-Power Programme would not only create employment opportunity for young Nigerians, but would also prepare Nigeria for international out sourcing where young Nigerians could export their products and attract foreign investment that would eventually sustain the economy.
This is because the training is not only about building the capacity of unemployed graduates for employment as agricultural extension support service providers; it is also about empowering the present senior extension personnel with the new effective extension methodologies so that they will in turn train 100,000 unemployed graduates in agricultural extension service delivery.
For each state, a pre and post test were conducted to measure the trainees’ knowledge before and after the training. The results from the south-west and south-east showed that the trainees had more than 70 per cent knowledge of agricultural activities, including the principles and theory cum practical skills necessary for the development of the sector in order to create jobs and improve the National Gross Domestic Product (NGDP) through agroinvestments.
The post results further showed that the trainees had full grasp of the different modules of the five-day training.
The post training tests in the south-west and southeast states indicated that the participants’ understanding of modern technologies in agriculture and extension had increased as no trainee scored below the obtained marks in the pre-training tests in these zones.
Ebonyi State acting Programme Manager of the Agricultural Development Programme, Dr. Anthonia Ibe-Enwo, remarked that, “the sustainable source of employment and income generation in Nigeria is now agriculture. This is why both federal and state governments are doing everything to improve agriculture through capacity building of extension agents, with other financial support to the agricultural sector.”
She, therefore, urged the trainees to take the training seriously because of the importance the Federal Government attached to their training, as well as the importance of agriculture to national economic growth.
Reports from all the states indicated that there was high hope that the Agro N-Power Programme would facilitate economic recovery for Nigeria through agriculture.