ibironkeeniola 
In Nasarawa state, 200 farmers in 13 local governments have been educated on ginger production with the assistance of the Extension Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), in collaboration with the Nasarawa Agricultural Development Programme (NADP).
The Nasarawa State Coordinator of the ministry of Agriculture, Malam Umaru Yusufu-Mohammed revealed this in a two-day training on ginger production in Lafia.
He said, “Ginger is one of the very high-value crops 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.”
Yusufu-Mohammed further added that “one of the problems we have in Nigeria is how to market our products and some of these international markets, 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.”
According to him, the extension workers were expected to disseminate information gotten from the training process to 80 farmers in Nasarawa South senatorial zone, 80 for Nasarawa North senatorial zone and 40 for Nasarawa West senatorial zone making a total of 200 farmers, he said.
He urged the Nasarawa State Government to provide the necessary support for the farming and production of the ginger crop.
SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA