The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has said empowering women and young Nigerians with the skills, tools and opportunities required for modern agriculture was critical to the future of the sector and the country’s food security.
She also commended the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for launching the Agri360 Mechanisation Training Initiative aimed at empowering 5,000 women and youths across the country.
Tinubu, represented by the wife of the Vice President, Nana Shettima, spoke on Wednesday at the National Colloquium on the Role of Women and Youth in Advancing Agricultural Mechanisation in Nigeria and the unveiling of the initiative at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media and ICT in the office of the Vice President, Kwapchi Bata Hamman.
According to the statement, the initiative is designed to train the beneficiaries in agricultural mechanisation, digital agriculture, equipment operation and maintenance, entrepreneurship and agribusiness management.
She said mechanisation would improve traditional farming methods by increasing productivity, reducing the physical burden of farming and making agriculture more attractive to young Nigerians.
According to her, the benefits of mechanisation would extend beyond crop production to equipment operation and maintenance, agricultural processing, logistics, technology and other areas of the agricultural value chain.
Tinubu said young Nigerians were already transforming agriculture through the use of digital technologies, precision farming, artificial intelligence and drones.
“They no longer see agriculture as subsistence; they see it as a huge opportunity, an enterprise and a career path to prosperity,” she said.
The First Lady also stressed the need to create more opportunities for women in agriculture, saying empowering them with skills and resources to earn incomes and expand their businesses would benefit their families and communities.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said mechanisation was critical to easing agricultural production and reducing the physical strength required for farming.
Kyari said the Agri360 initiative would cover the agricultural process from land preparation to value addition, including access to water and machinery.
He said the government was moving from “conversation to action” by treating agriculture as an economic enterprise capable of improving the livelihoods of farmers.
The minister said the initiative was in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, which identifies agriculture as a key driver of economic growth, food security and job creation.
The colloquium identified low mechanisation, limited access to finance, inadequate skills and infrastructure, as well as the exclusion of women and youths, as some of the major challenges limiting agricultural productivity in Nigeria.
They stressed that greater access to mechanisation could reduce drudgery, create jobs, attract young people to agriculture and empower women while improving food security.