80 farmers benefit from RiceAdvice app innovative training

Not less than 80 Nigerian farmers have benefited from the RiceAdvice and Weed manager application training for extention workers on the use of ICT to connect farmers for information network and innovative farming.

The training ended on Tuesday in Abuja with participants and beneficiaries from seven states.

The two – day training was organized by the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) in partnership with Sovisage Nig. Ltd.

Its focus is to intensify sustainable rice-based farming systems, as well as increase productivity for rural farmers.

Some of the beneficiaries commended the organizers of the training and promised to make the best use of the training to assist farmers get the best from their farming activities.

They expressed the belief that the outcome of their training would lead to enhancement of food sufficiency in the country at low cost.

Mr Sanusi Dankawu, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Kano State Agricultural Development Program, said the training was timely for farmers as planting season had commenced.

“I have been here since yesterday and I have benefited a lot. I learnt how to use the app to educate farmers on how to improve their yields.

“Kano State like you know, is one of the leading producers of rice and therefore this training is needed for farmers like me to educate me on how to go about in the rice farming.

“The first thing we do when get back is to organize an in-house training where we will train and educate our farmers on what we have learnt so far to help them improve their yields,” Dankawu said.

Mrs Veronica Igbara, an extension agent from Benue commended the UNDP for organizing such training to improve the quality and quantity of farmers’ output.

“With this type of training, agriculture has become more interesting and I know farmers will be happy to farm this wet season,” Igbara said.

Mrs Hajara Adamu from Admawa applauded the organisers for the training and the android phones given beneficiaries to make their work easier.

“This training is very important and it will help our farmers improve their yields because we can refer to the app to discuss our challenges and answers would be provided immediately,” Adamu said.

The UNDP-GEF project was in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the 5-year project is to be implemented across seven states in Nigeria.

The states are Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Benue, Gombe, Nasarawa and Adamawa, with the goal of fostering sustainability and resilience in Nigeria’s agricultural production.

The RiceAdvice app is a free android based science backed crop management decision-support tool developed by the Africa Rice Center.

Supreme reports that the farmers were all given android phones installed with the RiceAdvice app to aid their work and enable them communicate with experts whenever the need arises.