Farmers' Organisation, USAID empower 1,000 youths, women in Edo

The Edo State Cooperative Farmers Agency (ESCFA) said it has trained more than 1000 youths and women in the state on aquaculture farming.

The President of ESCFA, Mr Nosa Amayo, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Benin.

Amayo said that the training, which was conducted in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) markets 11, was to boost Aquaculture production in the state.

He said the farmers, who were mainly fishermen, were trained in Ikpoba Okha, Oredo, Ovia North-East and Owan East Local Government Areas and its environs in Edo North senatorial district.

According to him, the empowerment is gradually turning the state into a fish hub in the South-South geopolitical zone.

``Fish consumers from Warri, Calabar, Port-Harcourt, Ughelli among others now come to Benin to buy fish", he said.

While urging youths to embrace fish farming, he noted that the agency would soon commence goat farming, snail rearing and piggery among others in the state.

Amayo said that the agency was into different kind of farming activities such as the cultivation of arable crops, cash crops, raising of livestock and fisheries.

He added that the Farmers' Cooperative Agency had 980 primary cooperative sites spread across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.