By Ibrahim Muhammad
The Jigawa Agricultural Transformation Agency (JATA) has commenced a five-day national training workshop for 100 agricultural extension master-trainers as part of efforts to strengthen extension services and reach at least 500,000 farmers across Nigeria.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, JATA Director-General, Dr. Saifullahi Umar, said the training was designed to bridge the gap between agricultural innovations and their adoption by farmers.
He said Nigeria had access to improved crop varieties, climate-smart practices, mechanisation technologies and irrigation solutions, but stressed that effective extension services were needed to ensure that such innovations reached farmers.
According to him, the workshop should not be viewed as a standalone five-day programme, but as the beginning of a 12-month cascade training programme aimed at strengthening frontline extension personnel and ultimately reaching at least 500,000 farmers.
Dr. Umar said the master-trainers would be expected to mentor frontline extension workers, adapt agricultural technologies to local conditions and ensure that farmers’ challenges and experiences were communicated back to researchers and policymakers.
He explained that participants would return to their respective states with action plans identifying target locations, extension personnel, farmer groups, demonstration sites, delivery channels, partners, timelines and measurable indicators.
The JATA DG also disclosed that Jigawa State had recruited and trained 1,700 extension personnel and provided them with motorcycles to improve their mobility and presence in farming communities.
He said the state was also establishing Agricultural Development and Farm Service Centres to provide farmers with access to extension advice, quality inputs, mechanisation services, market linkages and financial services.
Dr. Umar emphasised that effective extension services must move away from traditional one-way communication to a professional, demand-driven and problem-solving approach.
He identified commodity- and location-specific advisory services, participatory farmer learning, public-private partnerships, results-based monitoring, continuous professional development and digital agricultural data management as key areas of reform.
He further stressed the importance of combining digital advisory platforms with human extension workers, noting that technologies such as farmer registries, geospatial mapping, mobile advisory services and remote sensing could improve the reach and effectiveness of extension services.
The workshop is expected to equip the master-trainers with knowledge in climate-smart agriculture, soil health, seed systems, integrated pest management, digital advisory services, agricultural finance, market development, contract farming and farm-business management.
Dr. Umar urged the participants to ensure that the knowledge gained during the training translated into measurable improvements in farmers’ fields, stressing that the success of Nigeria’s food-security ambitions would ultimately depend on what happens at the grassroots.
“Extension is the bridge that makes these elements work together,” he said.
The workshop, brought together extension experts from Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states.
The programme is being organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, African Development Bank (AfDB), Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), National Agricultural Growth Scheme–Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP), research institutions and other development partners
