Agriculture

NYFN Seeks For More Participation Of Youths In Agriculture

Published

5 years ago

October 2, 2020

Joel Ajayi

The Nigeria Young Farmers Network (NYFN) is seeking for more participation of Nigerian youths in embracing agriculture in order to reduce insecurity, unemployment, and another social menace.

The National Coordinator of NYFN, Promise Amahah who made this call during a peace full rally in Abuja, explained that the goal of the president is to lift over millions of Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years and that can only be achieved when young people get involved in agriculture.

According to him, youth across the country lack knowledge about the opportunities in agriculture, lack knowledge of business opportunities in agriculture.

He added that they don’t understand that agriculture is a source of wealth creation.

‘’We are represented from a different state, we have members across that 36 states of Nigeria, we are in every local government and every ward actively and our major tool is information and data, without data we won’t be able to do much in agricultural development, so we are gathering data of young people across the country to know their interest and to connect them to the opportunities in the agricultural value chain and that is what we are set to do.

‘’We are also partnering with the federal ministry of agriculture to be able to achieve this and also to leverage on government programs already on agriculture, so we are everywhere in the country, we are over 2 million and going and we expect that by the end of the year we must have reached 10 million.

‘’The goal of the president is to lift over millions of Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years and we can only achieve that when our young people get involved in agriculture. Agriculture is the highest employer of labour and agriculture is the quickest tool out of poverty, with agriculture, most problems will be solved and that’s why we are here.

‘’What we found that is the major challenge is lack of knowledge, young people nationwide lack knowledge about the opportunities in agriculture, lack knowledge of business opportunities in agriculture, they don’t understand that a lot of wealth can be created through agriculture and most of us who are already engaged in agriculture are doing very well and living comfortably., ‘’ he said.

The Director of Federal Department of Agricultural Extension (FDAE) Engr. Frank Satimari while speaking with pressmen said that the government is interested in mobilizing and sensitizing youths for agriculture.

Satimari who was represented by the Deputy Director of FMARD, Muhammad Bashiru explained that FDAE was to train and deploy75,000 youths aimed towards creating new skills and generate job for the teeming population of unemployed youths in Nigeria, to increase the productivity of farmers through continual access to information, innovation, and technology for improved practices in the agricultural value chain.

His Words:“We are concerned with mobilizing the youth for agriculture. That is why the Ministry currently mandated the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension (FDAE) to train and deploy 75,000 young farmers ratio. The objective is to create new skills and generate jobs for the teeming population of unemployed youth in Nigeria, to increase the productivity of farmers through continual access to information, innovation, and technology for improved practices in the agricultural value chain.

‘’In this regard, the youth population in Nigeria is encouraged to embrace agriculture as a profitable venture by engaging in various forms of agricultural activities within the respective sub-sectors and value chains.

‘’Agriculture has always been an innovative sector. But we need to improve faster through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) if we are to achieve our goals.

‘’It is a known fact across the globe that for a country to attain growth and development, its economy has to be diversified. Mono-economy needs to give way to the productive development of various sectors of the economy.

‘’The fundamental challenges we face today is not how to produce more but how to produce better. I want to stress that innovation in agriculture is the key priority to tackle food insecurity and unemployment in Nigeria.

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Agriculture

IWMI: Promoting affordable irrigation technologies for smallholder farmers

Published

2 weeks ago

October 21, 2025

The Gleamer

Mariam Sanni

Smallholder farmers are challenged with erratic rainfall leading to drought spells, crop water stress and eventually reduced growth and yield penalties

Water insecurity is the major risk to smallholder farmers and a major driver for low investments in agricultural innovations

Even when water resources are sustainably available, smallholder farmers are unable to invest in irrigation equipment due to high upfront costs.

Smallholder farmers have limited access to loans and credit facilities even though irrigation usually is a profitable investment.

Promoting affordable irrigation for smallholders involves increasing access to low-cost technologies like drip and sprinkler kits and solar pumps, and supporting them with financial tools like subsidies and credit.

Also the Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLID) has helped farmers to independently invest in, manage and maintain irrigation equipment, adapting technologies to local needs without relying on large-scale projects, reduces farmers’ reliance on erratic rainfall and leads to increased farm investments (good seed, fertilizers, etc.)

Farmers move from 1 rain-fed crop, to multiple harvests per year, boosting yields, income, and food security

Nigeria and other countries have high potential for solar-based irrigation, irrespective of the type of water resources.

As part of efforts to boost local capacity to produce and maintain simple, low-cost irrigation, International Water Management Institute, IWMI through multi- stakeholder dialogues, policy support is partnering with stakeholders created an enabling environment for inclusive and sustainable irrigation development .

The Researcher , Agricultural Water Solution, IWMI Dr Adebayo Oke during his presentation at the International Conference on Climate Change and Just Energy Transition 2025, highlighted that the institute has foster SMEs’ inclusive scaling of bundled irrigation solutions through inclusive business model development and strategic partnerships

The Conference which was theme: Sustainable Clinate Resilience and Just Energy Transition in Africa: A Collaborative Pathway through Policy, Capacity Building, Research and Inclusion was held in Abuja.

He added that its has deployed an impact accelerator program to develop new bundled solutions and SME collaborations that address multiple value chains

According him, IWMI has attracted sustainable finance investments in SMEs to fast-track the adoption of bundled water solutions by smallholder farmers.

Speaking on experience in Nigeria: scaling solar irrigation solutions –Solar scaling pathway studies (Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi) has stratifying the smallholder farmers using the Discrete Choice Experiment.

He mentioned bundling of irrigation technology and financial services to determine scaling pathway/different financing models.

Dr Oke added they also developed a credit facility to enable the scaling of SPI.

Furthermore, he stated IWMI-West & Central Africa Priorities for 2024-2030 as building resilient agric food system against climate change , leveraging water for resilience in fragile and conflict affected settings, enabling circular water and food economy innovations, supporting water infrastructure and allocation decisions among others .

The Country Director , Ghana and Regional Representatives for West and Central Africa, Professor Kehinde Ogunjobi in an interview with newsmen at the event highlighted the importance of evidence-based data for farmers, aquaculture, and environmental ministries.

He said that there is need to raise awareness and emphasized the importance of government support for research and developmental projects on climate change and its impact on agriculture, livelihood, and other sectors.

Professor Ogunjobi has implored government to build capacity of people working in the field of climate change and capacitate farmers to turn evidence-based data into reality.

He encouraged the government to do more to support research and address the impact of climate change, which is more evident in the West African region compared to developed countries.

He urged stakeholders to collaborate with the government and institutions like IWMI Ghana to improve the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts and improve the livelihood of people in the region.

He noted the political shift in the US, with the previous administration no longer supporting climate change initiatives, emphasizing the need for Africa to look inward.

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