No fewer than 500 women farmers have been equipped with commodity and grading skills for competitive marketing of their produce, under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
The Director General of Nigerian Agric Business Group (NABG), Dr. Manzo Mairiga, at a regional workshop on inclusiveness in Kaduna State, said the workshop was to educate participants on the challenges of climate change, which is the most critical challenge of farming across the world.
According to Mairiga, the workshop, funded by BMGF, as well as the Federal Government and participating states, is aimed at educating participants on commodity standouts, best farming practices and commodities grading to give them competitiveness advantage when it comes to marketing their products.
About the Bill and Melinda Gates FoundationÂ
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committed to fighting the greatest inequities in the world. In Nigeria, the foundation works with government of Nigeria and other partners to improve health outcomes, boost agricultural productivity, expand access to digital financial services, and empower women and other marginalized populations with greater economic opportunities. To help smallholder farmers boost their productivity, the organisation invests in efforts to introduce higher-yield strains of important crops such as yams, cassava, sorghum, cowpeas, and rice; increase the productivity of livestock; and improve the tools and systems that are available to farmers. We also support research and policies that help improve the lives of smallholder farmers over the long term.
They support the government’s goal of ensuring that women, smallholder farmers, and other marginalized populations have access to digital financial services, which can help them save, spend, and plan for the future more effectively.