The African Agricultural Technology Foundation said it aims to equip 1,000 cassava farmers and processors with skills on cassava value-addition and good agronomic practices.

The project team lead, Adeyemi Olojede, who is a director at the National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, said this would help boost cassava production in Nigeria.

The training project called “Mechanisation of cassava production and processing” is holding at Fashola, near Oyo town in Oyo State.

The training, which started on Monday and will end on Friday, was facilitated by AATF in collaboration with NRCRI.

It is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, with implementation by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH.

Speaking in Fashola on Wednesday at the training, Mr Olojede said the training covered good agronomic practices, value addition and financial management.

He said the cassava farmers were being taught basic things they needed to do to effectively and efficiently boost their production and increase their livelihood.

Mr Olojede said the project targeted 1,000 men, women and youths made up of cassava farmers and processors because they play a significant role in production, processing and value addition.

He said, “If you produce without value addition, you may not get the real value you intend to get in farming as a business. What we expect at the end of the training is for farmers to adopt the technology we are trying to transfer to them to boost their production and at the same time serve as producers.”

Mr Olojede further said the participants would be assisted with a credit facility at the end of the training.

Also speaking at the training, the AATF Communication Officer, Alex Abutu, said the 1,000 trainees were part of the 6,000 farmers AATF had previously promised to train.

The promise was made during the inauguration of the cassava mechanisation and agro-processing facility in April at Fashola.

Mr Abutu said the objective of the training was to teach cassava farmers and processors how to apply good agronomic practices to ensure high yields in cassava.

“We are worried that farmers are still harvesting less than 10 tonnes per hectare when cassava with good agronomic practices can yield up to 30 tonnes per hectare. So, farmers at the training are being taught how to ensure they get maximum profit from farming and for them to understand the importance of cassava mechanisation,” he said.

Mr Abutu said AAFT decided to start the training from Fashola village because the area had a history of producing more cassava than any other place in the South-West.

Speaking with journalists, one of the participants, Ojo Famoriyo, commended the training’s organisers, saying it had exposed him to the benefits of modern farming methods.

He said, “This is better in comparison with the old methods being practised.’’

Mr Famoriyo, a cassava farmer, said the training taught him how to get different products from cassava by value addition and to make more profit from cassava farming.

Also, a cassava processor, Dupe Raheem, appreciated the organisers, saying the training exposed her to ways of addressing some of the challenges confronting her in the farming business.

(NAN)