The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Julius Egbedi, who declared the workshop open on Friday at Delta Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (DARDA), Ibusa, said that the training replaced the usual yearly exhibitions due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The commissioner, represented by Mrs Stella Egedi, Director, Research, Planning and Statistics in the ministry, said the state government designed the training to reposition the farmers to develop and implement post COVID-19 recovery plans for agricultural sector.
He said that the training would come in two phases, the first fifty farmers were being trained today while the next batch of fifty farmers would be trained in Warri at a later date.
According to the commissioner, the training is organised to mark the 2020 World Food Day which is celebrated every Oct. 16.
“The main objective of WFD is to draw attention to the problems of food and agriculture and to consolidate in the struggle to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
“The theme of the year’s WFD celebration ‘Grow, Nourish, Sustain Together’, is aimed at sensitising farmers and to come together to quickly arrest the sufferings and negative impacts of COVID-19 pandemic to avoid food insecurity.
“I believe that the training will afford us the opportunity to interact, cross-fertilise ideas, learn new approach to farming techniques and increase our knowledge generally.
“The Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa led administration in a sheer determination to ensure food security for the people has increased its commitment to the sector and had developed several emergency projects and programmes as palliative measure in the state’s COVID-19 recovery plans.
“With your cooperation, I can boldly say that Delta state is poised to overcome all fears of food insecurity as being associated and predicted with COVID-19 and post COVID-19 effect”.
A Resource Person, Dr Chukwuemeka Odo, an Assistant Chief Dietician, Federal Medical Center (FMC), Asaba, cautioned the farmers on the need to produce good and nutritious crops and to eat healthy food.
He said the training was to expose the farmers on dangers of poor feeding habit, adding that eating healthy was not for the rich alone.
“Eating healthy depends on the knowledge and knowing how to combine different food; it is not about having much money,” he said.
Responding, Mr John Emenim and Mr Stanley Ijeh, Farmers and beneficiaries of the training, lauded the state government for the programme while promising to scale down the training in their communities.
They said that the training provided an alternative to the usual exhibitions that followed the World Food Day Celebration, no thanks to COVID-19.
Four Papers were presented with the following topics; “Introduction and Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Best Practices on Crops, Livestock and Fisheries.
“How to Produce Affordable and Sustainable Healthy Diet for all Deltans.
“How to Deepen Development and Implement Post COVID-19 Recovery Plans for the Agricultural Sector, and the
“Inclusion of Food Value Chain Development in Our Food System.
