KNARDA Lacks Funds To Train Agriculture Extension Workers—Official

Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, (KNARDA) says lack of funding is hampering its activities, especially in the area of training and retraining of extension workers.

The Director, Extension Services in KNARDA, Alhaji Sadi Ibrahim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Wednesday.

He said that the agency had not been able to conduct training for the 1, 360 extension workers due to lack of funds.

Ibrahim stressed the need for the state government to provide adequate funding for the training of extension agents in view of their importance to agricultural production in general and to local farmers in particular.

The director also emphasised the need for the state government to recruit more extension service workers, adding that the existing number was grossly inadequate to cover the over 1.6 million farmers.

NAN reports Kano state has 44 local government areas.

“Before 2014, the number of extension workers was not more than 800 and 900. But early 2015, the state government recruited 749 which assisted in raising the number of extension workers.

“As you know, we have three ecological zones with Rano having 14 local government areas while Gaya and Danbatta zones have 17 and 13 LGAs, “he said.

“Rano zone has 459 extension service staff while Gaya and Danbatta zones have 430 and 471 extension workers.”

He, however, attributed the shortage of the extension staff to retirement and death, saying that there was a need to recruit new hands to replace them.(NAN)