BORNO REACTIVATES AGRIC EXTENSION SERVICES

THE Borno State government has re-activated the agricultural extension services to boost farmers' income and productivity that have remained very low in creating more job opportunities among farmers in the Lake Chad Basin and rural areas of the state.

The extension services will adopt new technologies in the use of improved variety of seeds and livestock breeds that could increase agricultural productivity and farmers' income by more than 100 per cent before the end of this year.

Speaking to newsmen on the reactivation of farmers extension services at the Government House,  Maiduguri, the Commissioner of Agriculture, Usman Zannah said that the extension services combined with new technologies that are being introduced by the state government will address poverty, unemployment and low productivity among the 550,000 farming families.

To this end, he said government has procured and distributed 200 motorcycles to the extension officers in the three senatorial districts of Borno State.

The responsibility of the extension service officers, he added, was to 'monitor and evaluate agricultural development programmes in the three senatorial districts, adding that Konduga, Biu and Monguno are the respective headquarters for the extension services delivery for Borno Central, South and North senatorial districts.

He, however, noted that the targeting of rural farmers that constitute more than 75 per cent of farming workforce was the main focus of this year's strategy on addressing poverty and unemployment in the state.

Zannah said, 'government is going to embark on massive training and organisation of workshops for extension workers so as to introduce current ideas in agricultural trends,' adding that agriculture is the main economic sector of the people.

'The agricultural extension system is one of the transformation chains of the Federal Government with which the state government is going on with the development programme of agriculture. Our farmers will soon have new ideas and technology that will help them achieve better results in terms of productivity and incomes,' explained the commissioner.