IITA donates farm inputs to 135 young farmers in Abuja

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on Thursday donated farm inputs and machines to 135 young farmers in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, to enhance agricultural productivity, improve livelihood and contribute to food security in the country.

The institute, in a statement, said the farm inputs were donated to the farmers under the purview of its Youth in Agribusiness Project (YAS) and supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria.

“The YAS project, which is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria, donated the items to 135 farmers it earlier trained in the value chains of aquaculture, poultry, horticulture and other commodities,” the statement noted.

It listed the items donated to the farmers to include 148 bags of fish feed, fingerlings, tarpaulin collapsible ponds, different sizes of fish smoking kiln, and broiler starter feed.

Other items distributed are 148 bags of poultry feed, a full irrigation kit for horticultural crops, 2,000-capacity water tanks, fertiliser, and a chicken plucker, which removes feathers in a few seconds, among others.

The YAS Project

Since its establishment in 2023, IITA says the YAS project has provided extensive technical and business training in diverse commodities to approximately 7,000 young individuals. The project has also offered support to those dedicated to the initiative and seeking to expand their operations.

In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of IITA Youth in Agribusiness Office, Aline Mugisho, explained that the input support was a sequel to the training, business development and continued mentoring provided to the young farmers by the project to help them to scale up their businesses.

She advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the items, noting that the project would provide more support if the items were put to profitable use.

The official explained that the project had the mandate to train 10,000 youths in various agricultural commodities.

“The project, ‘Youth in Agribusiness: Enabling scaling of innovative technologies for sustainable food solutions’, known as YAS, was created to provide dignified employment for young people, and the project, which is funded by the Netherlands Government through the embassy in Nigeria, is run in collaboration with a Dutch company based in Nigeria, BopInc,” the statement said.

Additionally, Ms Mugisho said those receiving this support are part of those who had undergone training, and now the institute is supporting them to start or scale up their businesses because they have realised that providing them with capacity development alone is not sufficient.

“Today, we are reaffirming our commitment to raising a new generation of young agripreneurs, and this is what this programme is all about,” she said.

On her part, the Country Director of BopInc, Mercy Mayaki, applauded the young farmers for taking an interest in farming despite the harsh business environment and the temptation to relocate to other countries.

“Some have started their business and some are prepared to start with the items they are being given today,” she said.

“It’s a tough business environment, especially for the agricultural sector, nonetheless, it’s encouraging to see young people who believe in this country and are interested in doing something to be part of the change.”

Opportunities

On Thursday, Ms Mugisho said they decided to group the young farmers into clusters so that the items distributed can serve many people at a time, depending on their commodities and the part of the value chain they are interested in.

“We gave some of those in horticulture items to build their greenhouses; those in aquaculture, we gave them fish feed, fingerlings and smoking kilns.

Those in poultry have received chicks, feed and other things. These items will help new farmers start their businesses, while it will help existing farmers to scale up,” the statement noted.

The official emphasised that opportunities in agriculture were not limited to production, but along the complete value chain, which is why the support cuts across.

“Some will produce the fish that others will process, and that’s why we are giving out fingerlings, tarpaulin ponds as well as smoking kilns for fish processing. We want them to understand agriculture from that business perspective. If we can support them to increase production, we will certainly have more food,” Ms Mugisho said.

As a research institution, the official said IITA is positioning young people to be off-takers of its technologies and innovations. However, she said, there is a limit to what they can do as an institution.

Testimonies

One of the beneficiaries of the initiative, Umar Farouq, said his farming style was primitive until he participated in the project.

“I’m a poultry farmer and to the glory of God and through the help of YAS, when we came in, they gave us intensive training, and that has reflected on my farm because my productivity has increased. Now that they have equipped us, it will improve our productivity and capacity,” the statement quoted him as saying.

In her account, Amara Felicia, a fish farmer in Abuja, said the training, mentoring and support she received from the project had surpassed her expectations.

“I’m a fish farmer and I was trained in aquaculture, and I must say I’m very excited to be a beneficiary of this project. At first, I had my doubts; I thought it was one of the organisations looking for numbers. During the exercise, I learnt, re-learned and unlearned some of the things I thought I knew. The training was very impactful.

“At some point, I had to stop the business because of the high cost of feed, but this input support will go a long way. I got 12 bags of 4mm feed and 450 fingerlings. Honestly, that’s a lot compared to what I have on the ground. So, this is a major expansion for my business and I’m very excited.”