Soil Values Project Trains 50 Extension Agents, Farmers In Bauchi

The International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), done its Soil Values programme, a DGIS-funded Programme, has begun grooming 50 hold workers to amended ungraded fertility and reconstruct degraded lands successful Bauchi State. This improvement follows a akin workout held successful Kano and Jigawa states.

The programme organised a two-day grooming for hold agents and led farmers successful ungraded restoration, conservation techniques, and integrated ungraded fertility management.

The Soil Values programme operates successful a discourse marked by climatic and socio-economic challenges facing Sahelian countries, specified arsenic recurrent droughts, socio-political conflicts, desertification and the effects of clime change.

The program’s inaugural is built astir 3 involution pathways (Agroecology, Inclusive Markets and Enabling Environment) arsenic good arsenic 5 involution areas (Bundling, Integration, Brokering, Convening and Scoping & Learning)

The state coordinator of the Soil Values Programme Nigeria, Medinah Ayuba-Fagbemi, said this connected the sidelines of a two-day grooming workout connected Thursday successful Bauchi: “The Soil Values programme aims to amended ungraded fertility and productivity of 2 cardinal hectares of cultivation onshore successful the Sahel portion strengthening the resilience to clime shocks and well-being of 1.5 cardinal farmers, with a peculiar absorption connected women and youth. We anticipation to reconstruct 800,000 hectares successful North Nigeria, benefiting 600,000 smallholder farmers.”

This grooming is portion of a €100 cardinal inaugural implicit 10 years funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands done its Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS). She stated that 50 hold workers would beryllium trained, including 30 successful the archetypal signifier and 20 successful the 2nd phase.

Medinah said participants would beryllium exposed to integrated ungraded fertility management, ungraded and h2o conservation, and ungraded wellness absorption techniques to amended ungraded fertility, summation harvest productivity, and heighten nutrient security.

The coordinator said the participants were expected to cascade down the grooming and technologies to astir 20,000 smallholder farmers successful Jama’are, Shira, Itas Gadau, Toro, Zaki and Ningi Local Government Areas, spanning crossed 21 communities wrong the state

According to Medinah, the Soil Values consortium is besides collaborating with the Bauchi authorities Agricultural Development Program (BSADP) and the World Bank-funded projects successful the authorities done ACReSAL and L-PRES successful gathering the capableness of hold workers connected Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM), Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) and Soil Health Management (SHM) technologies. The grooming workout reflects its committedness to restoring ungraded health, improving productivity, and gathering resilient farming systems of producers and agropastoralists.

She said the grooming workout would fortify hold agents’ method capableness and animate caller approaches to moving hand-in-hand with farmers to execute much sustainable and inclusive cultivation transformation.

Also, MELS coordinator of the Soil Values Programme, Joshua Arogunyo, said the programme initiated viable programmes to amended ungraded fertility absorption and reconstruct degraded lands successful Bauchi, Kano, and Jigawa, adding that the programme’s scope would screen 10 states successful bluish Nigeria.

“The programme’s thrust is to trim the output gap, amended ungraded fertility, and marque farmers much deliberate astir giving backmost to the ungraded to guarantee semipermanent productivity and nutrient security,” helium said. “We are implementing it crossed the Sahelian portion of Nigeria due to the fact that that is wherever onshore degradation is astir severe,” helium said.

“We anticipation that astatine the extremity of this programme, Nigeria would person made important advancement successful restoring degraded lands, expanding husbandman incomes, and raising consciousness astir the value of investing successful ungraded wellness sustainably,” helium said.

Some participants, Aliyu Safiyanu and Helen Ciroma, lauded the gesture, adding that it would promote bully cultivation practices (GAP) successful the state.

Safiyanu said that helium learnt caller skills that would alteration him to thatch agrarian farmers however to usage workplace by-products, specified arsenic Bokashi, to nourish their farmlands.

On her part, Ciroma said the caller techniques, specified arsenic composting and Bokashi, would alteration women farmers to amended their ungraded fertility and summation productivity.