The federal government has empowered 80 female farmers with laptops worth millions of naira to boost agricultural businesses in the country.
This took place on Monday in Uyo during the closing ceremony of a 5-day training on ICT and modern agricultural practices for female farmers in South-south zone organised by the National Center for Women Development (NCWD) Abuja.
The event with the theme: Engendering Agricultural Innovation Through ICT, also witnessed empowerment of 80 widows and vulnerable women with business capital.
Speaking, Director General of NCWD, Dr Asabe Bashir, said the training was designed to expose women to new techniques in agriculture that could help farmers to improve on their agricultural practices and methods.
Bashir, who said agriculture employs over 75 percent of the country’s workforce, noted that the demand for agricultural produce keeps increasing as the population swells and many of the small-scale farmers are not able to meet up with the demands.
According to her, as Nigeria is predicted to become world’s third populous nation by year 2050, agriculture should be embraced by all to be able to feed such growing population.
“Information and Communication Technology is a vehicle that drives development in all sector of the economy, including agriculture.
“It enables farmers use research data and adopts technology necessary to accelerate growth in the agricultural sector.
“With many being equipped with this technology and knowledge, the goal of the federal government to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years will be realised and farmers will be able to contribute their quota to the economic growth and development of the country, she added.
In her remarks, the wife of the state governor, Dr. Martha Emmanuel commended the federal government for complementing the effort of the state in empowering female farmers and training them to meet global standard.
