In an act to foster growth in the country, Prof Adeolu Ayanwale, called on Federal and State Government to enhance digital training for farmers to tackle food insecurity across the nation.

Ayanwale, a professor of Agricultural Economics at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, stated this during a training and capacity development workshop organised by the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.

The workshop was organised in partnership with Obafemi Awolowo University and the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute, Ilorin.

The digital training had become necessary to ensure improved and increased agricultural production, Ayanwale said.

He said, “Digital training simply means teaching farmers how to use digital tools on their farms and in various phases of their crops’ value chain—crop production, crop growth and development, crop marketing, etc.

“The Federal Government should embrace teaching farmers how to use digital devices, such as phones, radio, and internet, for production and marketing, so that they can begin to market their produce on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, among others.

“This will go a long way in helping to improve and replicate for youth and women farmers how to improve their farms’ productivity and eventually enhance the food security of the nation.”

Ayanwale further explained that since the start of the workshop series in March 2023, over 500 train-the-trainers have been trained intensively and empowered to go back to their communities to step down the training.

“We have trained over 500 arable crop farmers, but mostly vegetable farmers, in three phases of the workshop. The fourth phase will be coming up in August 2024.

“Our training is all-encompassing as we train the farmers in how to plant, grow, preserve, package, harvest, transport, market and export their produce. Also, we talk about developing a savings culture, and accessing financial support from the Bank of Agriculture,” he added.

Also speaking, Olufemi Oladunni, the Executive Director of the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute, called on vegetables farmers to utilise the training they had received on spacing when applying fertilisers to their plants.

Oladunni advised them against applying fertiliser during the rainy season and to grow agroecologically friendly crops using organic manure at times rather than regular usage of inorganic fertiliser.