FCT FADAMA Coordinator, Usman Adangara has reiterated his commitment to provide additional capacity building supports for farmers in the territory.
Mr Adangara said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Gwagwalada, on Thursday.
According to him, the FADAMA Development Project aims at increasing the number of FCT rural farmers who take farming as business, through training, input support and ensuring food security.
“The objective of the project is to support clusters of farmers in communities across the FCT on a sustainable basis for productivity.
“75 per cent of FADAMA users are satisfied with operations, maintenance and utilisation of community owned infrastructure and capital assets through the project.
“The criteria for selecting participating households are based on their motivation, commitment and willingness to provide beneficiary contributions,” he said.
The coordinator added that the project would provide capacity support, with emphasis on strengthening linkages between farmers, agro-dealers and processing firms to develop contracts for agreed quality of output.
He however called for training of rural farmers on mechanised farming to enhance food production, and added that it would ensure employment and food security to boost the economy.
He said that “There is need for the country to increase mechanisation of agriculture as this will reduce cost of production, clearing of land, planting and harvesting.
“The local governments also need to get involved in mechanised farming to ensure that farmers at the rural communities get involved.
“This is to make it easy for traditional land owners to lease land on long-terms basis to those interested in putting it to production.”
Besides, the coordinator stressed the need for Nigerians to tap into the potential in agriculture value chain at secondary bases, irrespective of their occupations, to ensure food security in the country.
NAN
