By Muhammad Goronyo, Sokoto
The training was organised by the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension (FADE) of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture &Rural Development (FMARD) in collaboration with National Agricultural Extension Research &Liaison Services (NAERLS) and Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA/SG 2000-Nigeria).
It was aimed at training Extension Agents (EAs) of the Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) across the country to equip them with the updated extension services delivery methods and practices, it also includes refresher knowledge on crop based technologies among the EAs to help revitalize the decaying national extension system in the country. The training in Zamfara State was conducted in four days from 8th to 11th March, 2021, and was hosted by the Zamfara Agricultural Development Project (ZADP).
One of the resource persons, Ibrahim Hassan Magazu trained the EAs on Rice value chain, and as well included field trip and practicals focused on the advanced production practices, post-harvest &processing practices, packaging, transportation, storage and marketing of Rice commodity among others.
He also emphasized on site selection, seed/variety selection per location &vegetation, weeding, fertilizer application methods, as well as pest &diseases management of rice.
On fertilizer Magazu stressed that EAs should note that fertilizer application on rice is not just dependent on time only, but depends principally on the vegetative development stages of the rice plant, such as panicle differentiation, panicle initiation, meiotic stage among other processes.
