A Japanese farming group, the Sasakawa Africa Group, has trained 5,500 farmers in Cross River State since 2015. The training is on how to adapt modern technology to increase agricultural yields. The group clustered the farmers and deployed their technical experts to regularly guide them on the latest researches on particular crops and cultivation.
This was disclosed to newsmen in Calabar by the group’s state coordinator, Ekok Ntum, before their experts, led by the group’s country director, Prof Sani Miko, visited farm settlements in central and northern parts of the state.
Ntum said the farmers, who were spread across the three senatorial zones of the state, were trained on modern methods of cultivating cassava, maize as well as rearing of goats. He disclosed that the farmers were specifically trained on the new methods of planting cassava and maize by means of intercropping, as well as the proper dimensions and species to guarantee optimum yield. He said the training was made possible by the Sasakawa Africa Association and the Africa Cassava Agronomy Initiative, with the support of researchers from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan.
SOURCE: DAILY TRUST