SAA-Nigeria has started capacity-building activities of two farmer groups in Nasarawa (the North Central region) under the “Project for Revitalization of Rice Cooperatives and Decarbonization of Rice Production and Processing (Climate Solutions Technologies Initiative)” funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Japan.

At the training, 60 persons (35 Males, 25 Females) engaged in biochar and bokashi production, which SAA has introduced as RA techniques. Moreover, they learnt group formation, group dynamics, collective market access, produce aggregation, digital warehouse operations and management as Market Oriented Agriculture (MOA) components. Other capacity-building areas included rice postharvest loss reduction techniques, Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs), an introduction to decarbonisation technologies in rice production, and fertilizer-saving technology, also known as Urea Deep Placement (UDP), practical demonstration of biochar and bokashi production and its utilisation for soil amendment.

This project aims to strengthen farmer groups, namely Dacewa Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Shabu and the Apashi Woza Multipurpose cooperative society, Assakio. It will construct two aggregation centres equipped with rice processing machines and modern facilities for agribusiness to promote collective marketing, including commodity aggregation, produce-off-taking, rice processing and packaging and Community Savings for Investment in Agriculture (CSIA), digitalisation of warehouse management, mobile apps (Agroponto) and decarbonisation of rice production to increase productivity and boost farmers’ income.

For the details of the Project, visit: https://www.saa-safe.org/news/news.php?nt=1&vid=424&lng=usa