… commences training of enumerators and assessors.

As part of continuous efforts to cement initiatives on the ongoing agricultural development in the State, Ekiti State Government and OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited have partnered to map and evaluate the soil fertility distribution within the state.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Ebenezer Boluwade who made this known at a training programme organized for extension officers at the ADP office in Ikole-Ekiti said the project has been approved by the State Governor, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji stressing that the Governor’s approval is predicated on the fact that the state is desirous to change the narrative on food production, boost agricultural production and tackle the problem of food insecurity in the country.

He said under the programme, both parties have agreed to a common interest in developing sustainable and innovative solutions to address food insecurity and ensure wealth for the people by creating an enabling environment that ensures the empowerment of all stakeholders with modern agricultural information and technologies.

According to the Commissioner, the Parties aim to improve productivity for smallholder farmers by providing soil advisory services to solve challenges faced by farmers such as improved fertilizer formulations, precision agriculture, etc.

He noted that the parties aim to provide farmers with access to training on Good Agricultural Practices and access to quality and adequate fertilizers, etc.

Boluwade stressed that the parties intend to address these issues in a holistic manner, ensuring value creation at local level and socio-economic development of farmers.

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According to the Commissioner, who was represented at the training by the Project Manager of the State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Mr. Bamidele Adegbola, said the training will capture the holistic and comprehensive development and agronomic projects to improve farm productivity of smallholder farmers to guarantee sustainability across all value chains.

The Project according to him , will focus on provision of community-based soil advisory services and fertilizer recommendations, provision of training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), access to high-quality fertilizers and other inputs; and other farmer centric initiatives and projects.

In his remarks, the representative of OCP Africa Fertilisers Nigeria LImited, Mr Omotayo, emphasised that Ekiti became one of the choice destinations for the deployment of his company’s solution due to the farmers- friendly initiatives of the present administration in the State Government like the 50% subsidy on fertilizer distribution to small holder farmers.

He said the company as part of its corporate social responsibility will train extension agents on digital soil mapping and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) stressing that the extension agents will be trained on the use of applications such as Guru maps and other equipment that will facilitate digital soil collection, analysis and mapping in 100 communities across the 16 local government area.

Omotayo noted that “at the end of the intervention, farmers will experience an increased yield since soil specific fertilizer application and dosage will be precisely determined.”