A
two-week training has been mapped out for the training of women and youths by
Kaduna State in bull husbandry by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (FMARD) in collaboration
with office of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and College of Agriculture and Animal
Science in Kaduna
Funding for the training was from the MDGs office to provide skills in
fattening of cattle for the women and youths in the state, as gathered by NaijaAgroNet.
Opening
the training, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi
Adesina represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Statistic in the
Ministry, Umar Farouk Hussaini decried Nigerian's reliance on imported food,
stressing that the training was part of Federal Government's desire to build
the capacity of 8,000 youths and women in various agricultural fields including
fishery, cassava production, animal husbandry and poultry.
"Whatever
we are providing here is a starter pack to the participants as something they
should use to get a take-off in their lives. At the end of the training, bulls
and feeds among others will be distributed to the participants to start with
and sell later on when they are fattened," he said,
Provost
of College of Agriculture and Animal Science, Dr Balarabe Jahun informed NaijaAgroNet that Nigeria spends over $5.2 billion annually on
food importation, which is equivalent to 48 per cent of the country's total gross
income.
He
lamented that if the citizens of any nation no matter how rich they may depends
on food importation the country will
still remain in a poor state and that is the situation in Nigeria.
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