The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Extension Department, has trained 10 extension workers on ginger production.
The gesture, in collaboration with Nasarawa Agricultural Development Programme (NADP), was sequel to stepping the training of 200 farmers in the 13 local government areas of the state.
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Malam Umaru Yusufu-Mohammed, Nasarawa State Coordinator of the ministry, made this known to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia on Friday at the end of a two-day training on ginger production.
Yusufu-Mohammed, represented by an official of the ministry, Mr Sunday Odogo, said the training targeted 10 extension officers in the 13 councils to boost ginger production in the state.
“Ginger is one of the very high value crop in Nigeria. That is why we are training these extension workers so that they can go back and step it down to farmers in their localities on how to promote ginger production.
“In the world entirely, Nigerian ginger is one of the best. These factors prompted the Federal Government to mandate us to spread the message on how to promote ginger production using modern techniques,” he said.
He said an aspect of the training dealt with how farmers can effectively market the crop.
“One of the problems we have in Nigeria is how to market our products and some of these international market, you will find out that there are some criteria to meet for acceptance of export of these products.
“So we will teach the farmers how to process it, how to store it and how to market it and see how they will get value for their products,” he said.
He said the extension workers were expected to step down the training to 80 farmers in Nasarawa South senatorial zone, another 80 for Nasarawa North senatorial zone and 40 for Nasarawa West senatorial zone making a total of 200 farmers.
He then appealed to the Nasarawa State Government to provide the necessary support for the farming and production of the ginger crop.
“In Nigeria, the state that produces ginger most is Kaduna State but Nasarawa State also has the right climatic condition to produce ginger and people are not going into it,” he said.
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