Forty extension workers in Gombe State have undergone training on modern extension delivery systems.
Speaking at the opening of the three-day training held in Gombe, the Director of the Agricultural Extension at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Engineer Frank Satumari Kudla, said the training was designed to empower participants with skills in the use of extension delivery methodologies and tools.
Kudla decried the decline in the national agricultural extension delivery system, including the decreasing number of extension agents.
He explained that the decline was caused by deaths and non-replacement of retired extension workers and poor capacity to deliver due to lack or low quality of training, as well as poor funding of the sector.
He said the training will provide the extension workers with necessary logistic and reference manuals in tune with emerging technologies, innovations and practices in the sub-sector.
The Permanent Secretary in the state’s Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. Barrister Obel Yaji, decried the decline in the number of extension workers in the state.
He said in the last two years, over 100 extension workers have left the service and were not replaced, which according to him has greatly affected the extension services in the state.
The Programme Manager of Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Mrs Abigail A Fada, said the extension workers were selected from both the public and private sectors.
She said the beneficiaries will be given tools that will aid their jobs at the end of the training, adding that the beneficiaries are expected to step down the training to extension workers at the local government councils.
