The Katsina State Government has converted 722 local government workers to agricultural extension service officers in order to support farmers with proper information to enhance food security and agricultural production in the state.
Governor Dikko Radda made this disclosure in Katsina at a two-day training organized for the workers with the theme “Building the Future of Extension Services,” saying each of the 361 political wards across the 34 local government areas of the state would have not less than two agricultural extension officers.
The governor stated that the decision became imperative as a game-changer for agricultural development to address the manpower shortage in agricultural extension services, adding that as of May 2023, the state had only 72 extension workers.
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He noted that the conversion was to strengthen extension services and ensure massive food production, assuring farmers that the government would provide them with improved seeds and other inputs to boost productivity.
Radda explained that they will be trained in their respective senatorial zones and local government areas to ensure that they master the concept very well, and that each of them will be given a motorcycle for easy movement within their area of responsibility.
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Also speaking was the Commissioner of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Ahmed Bakori, who noted that the government was determined to transform agricultural activities to attain food sufficiency and security, as well as address the current insecurity in the state.
The commissioner said that the responsibility of the extension workers was to deliver the latest scientific information regarding farming that would trigger growth in agriculture directly to farmers, while charging the participants to pay attention to what they would be taught so they would be able to disseminate it properly to farmers.
