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Six hundred farmers
in Ondo State are currently being trained by the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) on cassava cultivation, the
Cassava Value Chain Manager of the agency, Ifeanyi Ojiako, has said.

Mr Ojiako, who
stated at a programme on the premises of Matna Foods Limited, Ogbesse,
to train the farmers on the latest techniques in cassava farm
management, said USAID was interested in assisting Nigerian farmers to
boost cassava production and at the same time help local
agro-processing firms to grow.

He said that
through its Maximising Agricultural Revenues and Key Enterprises in
Targeted Sites (MARKETS), the USAID has also distributed 50 bundles of
high yielding cassava stems to each of the farmers to plant on a
hectare of farmland allocated to each of them.

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The programme, he
added, was also aimed at helping agro-based processing firms source
materials from ready markets, while at the same time, link the farmers
directly with the processors to increase their earnings.

“USAID, through
MARKETS, engage some local based consultants to organise the farmers
into cluster groups so that they could be empowered with modern
technology and inputs that would be funded by the agency, to plant the
correct way so that they can supply the processing firms.

“We also fund the
consultants to supply improved planting materials in bundles to each of
the farmers, to enable them plant a hectare of cassava farms.

“We also fund the
training of their leaders by taking them to demonstration farms to
learn new planting techniques, and the knowledge they gain will be
transferred to their colleagues.

“For now, we have
assisted 600 farmers to cultivate a hectare each and, at maturity, we
also assist them to supply to the processors at a competitive amount
that would definitely improve their lifestyles.”