Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase 1 kicks off

NaijaAgroNet

The Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, financed by AfDB has been launched by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) alongside the African Development Bank AfDB, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet also report that the programme is expected to create additional incomes to an already enlarged number of producers and entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector in Nigeria by given about 120,000 jobs down the value chain of priority commodities with an additional 20 million tons of key commodity food crops which include cassava, rice, and sorghum that will be added to the domestic food supply each year.

According to Dr Nteranya Sanginga, the Director General of IITA explained that lots of young people are migrating to cities all over Africa in search of business opportunities, saying goodbye to an increasingly ageing population.

 “This project aims to build on the youth model developed in IITA to change mindsets of young men and women and gainfully engage them in agriculture.”

The project will also use young entrepreneurs in agriculture as a model the “IITA youth agripreneurs” to reach out to other young people in Africa and it will be implemented by IITA in Ibadan, Oyo State, and in DR Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Chidozie Anibueze/GEE
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