The Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), under the Ekiti State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, has empowered 115 farmers across the 16 local government areas of the state in a five-day program aimed at enhancing productivity and technology adoption to resolve persistent farmers-herders crisis.
The participants include livestock farmers, Project Implementation Unit (PIU) members, representatives from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), academia, among others.
Speaking on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti at the opening ceremony of the training themed: “Productivity and Technology Adoption Survey and Analysis”, Ekiti Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Ebenezer Boluwade, lauded the initiative for promoting innovative agricultural practices and improving food systems across the state.
Boluwade, represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ebenezer Ojo explained that the training was designed to add value to livestock production through the use of appropriate technologies.
He emphasized that the program would also contribute to ensuring sustainable food security and peaceful coexistence in the state.
He said, “The training, organized by the Ekiti State Coordination Office of L-PRES, is aimed at improving livestock production through relevant technology adoption. The project is expected to directly benefit 1.43 million Nigerians, with 30 percent of those beneficiaries being women.
“Our state is focusing on four livestock value chains: dairy/beef, sheep/goat, piggery, and poultry (both broiler and egg production). Stakeholders across these value chains must collaborate with related agribusinesses to drive food security and harmony across communities using the performance indicators laid out in the project implementation manual.
“The livestock sub-sector is wide and presents some promising production opportunities in our States, hence Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support (L-PRES) Project is supporting measures that will help the livestock farmers and ancillary agribusinesses mitigate and increase adaptive measures to modernize agricultural practices and resilience through improved innovation and good practices.
“The State Government through the L-PRES project is ready to give support to our livestock farmers through training and capacity building, construction of modern livestock infrastructures, processing facilities, and loan facilities, market linkage and at the same time foster unity between farmers and herders through establishment of conflict mediation platforms both at the State and Local Government levels”.
Speaking with journalists, Ekiti State L-PRES Coordinator, Yinka Adedipe, explained that the training, facilitated by Synergy Impact Consultants Limited, was designed to help stakeholders develop improved data collection and record-keeping methods to reduce conflicts between farmers and herders.
He said the training would strengthen participants’ capacity to analyze productivity data and implement effective interventions for improved agricultural outcomes.
“As a result of farmers/herders clashes, there’s a need for us to have improved technology of taking records during our survey on how to tackle food insecurity in the society.
“Ekiti is the first state to establish a farmers/herders committee and we plan to leverage this through targeted trainings like this one. This will help us track critical agricultural data and promote peaceful co-existence”.
A participant, Omoniyi Olusola, said the training would enhance his understanding of record keeping through digital tools and foster agricultural development in the state.
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