FG, FUNAAB empower women farmers on aquaculture, entrepreneurship
The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) has partnered the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) on training and empowerment of women and girls on aquaculture especially fish production.
The partnership which was signed between the Federal Government and Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research (IFSERAR) in FUNAAB focused on training and empowerment of women from five states.
The women were trained for five days in fishery production recently in Abeokuta in a programme tagged, “Aquaculture and Fisheries Production, Management, Processing and Value Addition”, by the agric ministry,FUNAAB and a group, Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria.
Declaring the workshop open in Abeokuta recently, Olusola Oyewole, Professor and Vice-Chancellor, FUNAAB appreciated the collaborators in organising the programme, in an effort to increase food production, create employment and reduce poverty.
He congratulated the participants for being part of the maiden and specialised training programme, exclusively designed for women.
He added that fishery production was an important aspect of the nation’s agricultural development because of its huge consumption, by virtually every segment of the country.
Oyewole recalled that FUNAAB had played a significant role in the development of fisheries sector over the years, particularly in the South-west in the areas of fingerlings, brood stock production and distribution under the West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) in the last 12 months.
Earlier, Akin Omotayo, professor and director of IFSERAR, while welcoming participants, said the training had been structured in such a way as to make a layman to understand it, as there would be practical sessions outside the classrooms to enable participants gain more knowledge.
He advised the participants who came from different states such as Kwara, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Oyo and Ogun state, to take advantage of the programme, to acquire more knowledge on fingerlings production.
Also, Sonny Echono, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, represented by the Deputy Director, Women in Agriculture, Zainab Towogbola, said the training was important because it was in line with the present administration’s effort at addressing the problem of unemployment in the country which had become a threat to good quality life.
He added that the present government recognised the need to harness and mobilise the human resources of the country into actionable programmes that would make meaningful impacts on the economy, as government had set up a deliberate and aggressive drive for the training of unemployed youths and women nationwide on different agricultural enterprises along the value chains under crops, livestock and fisheries platforms.
He added that at the end of the training, each co-operative society would be further supported and encouraged with a starter pack comprising fish tanks, smoking kilns, electric aerators, water testing kits, fish juveniles, medications and supplementary feeds that will promote technology adoption and economic engagement in aquaculture table fish production and processing.
He urged the trainees to show a high level of participation, involvement and seriousness during the training so as to be fully integrated and put into practice, what they had learnt. The workshop was rounded off with series of lectures on fish farming, fish pond construction, fish feed formation, fish marketing, processing and record keeping.
RAZAQ AYINLA