FMARDPace Project not only for N-Agro, all you need to know

What the project is
Why Npower beneficiaries
Important links
Training Resource Materials/Enumeration Guide

In a bid to meet the need of Enumerators for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and Project for Agricultural Co-ordination and Planning (PACE) project, the Agric Ministry has extended the registration to other categories of the N-power program.

According to the Diekola Alabi of AFJP, "the project demands a pool of Enumerators that would cover the 774 local Governments of the country, and the N-power Beneficiaries are in close relationship with the Federal Government, hence they stand more chances of partaking in the program than the others."

The Agricultural for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP) is the FGNs’ response to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic on locally grown food supply chain. This response will ease the impending impact of global food crisis on Nigeria, protect our most vulnerable citizens and keep local food supply chains thriving.

President Mohammadu Buhari had in one of his speeches during the COVID-19 address to nation restated his resolve to revive the Agricultural sector and ensure that local farmers contribute maximally in food chain sustainability regardless of the impact of COVID-19 in the country.

FMARD has as of January, 2020 said that it would recruit and train more than 50,000 extension workers in the next three years in order to aid local farming.

The Ministry emphasised that extension in agriculture is a service that assists farmers through educational procedures in improving farming methods and techniques as well as increasing production efficiency.

The intention to engage extension agents was disclosed by the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, while speaking at a press conference held after a tour of Nestle Nigeria Plc. in Lagos.

We need extension officers to guide local farmers on how to use fertilisers in the different soils they farm on. If we do not have extension agents, we will always have issues in the production of quality crops, especially beans.

Unfortunately, we are lacking them. That is why the ministry aims to recruit and train about 50,000 extension officers in the country in the next three years.

One way to engage a large number of youths is to train them as extension officers for local farmers. We also want to train some as specialised extension officers – those that will carry farmers along; they will become farmers on site.

If our Agriculture Mechanization programme comes through as we hope, it will involve a lot of unemployed youths.

Meanwhile, President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabiru Ibrahim has decried the poor number of extension service providers in the country.

Ibrahim, while speaking to newsmen revealed that the country had less than 10,000 extension workers.

There is a serious dearth of extension workers… We are a country where 70% of us are farmers and we have less than 10,000 of us who are extension workers.

It is a very serious disconnect. We [at AFAN] are very happy that the president wrote to us that the government is going to train 50, 0000 extension workers.

Important Links
To register for the project