NALDA to send 200 young farmers abroad for capacity building on animal, crop production

The National Agricultural Lands Development Authority (NALDA) announced on Wednesday that 200 young farmers would be sent to Israel and Morocco for crop production and animal husbandry skill building.

The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, who made the announcement at the official hand over of travel documents, in Abuja, said it was a continuation of the National Young Farmers Scheme (NYFS) programme.

According to him, the goal of the NYFS initiative is to get young people interested in food production.

According to Ikonne, the goal was to make agriculture more appealing to young farmers by exposing them to modern agriculture and agribusiness.

He predicted that this will result in tremendous food production for Nigerians as well as food exportation.

The 200 young farmers heading to Israel and Morocco, according to Ikonne, are part of a new initiative dubbed “Aggressive Food Production,” which is being run in partnership with the Ministry of Education.

Youths from 36 states would be in attendance for six days of intense training in greenhouse farming and animal husbandry, he said.

According to the executive director, Israel and Morocco were picked because of their agricultural and animal husbandry competence.

According to him, the Federal Government covered all of their travel and training costs, which were included in NALDA’s budget.

He said the young farmers will return to their communities to train others on NALDA’s integrated farm estates.