WOFAN moves to improve agric in 10 Northern states

The Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, has trained over 600 extension workers on the use of the ICON 2 Scale-Up app across 10 Northern states in Nigeria.

The ICON-2 Scale-Up app is a software designed to track and manage the implementation of WOFAN’s project efforts among farmers in their respective regions which would in turn help the management make informed decisions.

The 13-day training commenced on Wednesday, January 11, 2023, and ended on Friday, February 27, 2023.

The Organisers said the training was designed to equip participants with the necessary operational skills needed to use the app efficiently for the sake of the farmers.

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In an interview with Daily Trust at the end of the training, Hajia Salamatu Garba, WOFAN’s Executive Director and Country Director of ICON 2 Project, said the intended impact of the training was to build a strong relationship between the extension workers and the farmers, increase the accuracy of data related to farmlands through geo-mapping, aid farmers carry out accurate inputs distribution, create a well-trained group of advisors to help the farmers and enable WOFAN to efficiently and effectively measure and evaluate their projects live.

Hajia Salamatu added that the training would help farmers gain a better understanding of latest advancements in agricultural technology and better equip them to make informed decisions about their farms.

She noted that apart from exposing benefiting farmers to modern farming techniques and technologies, WOFAN had been supporting farmers with inputs.

The FCT Team Lead of WOFAN, Hajia Maryam Lawal, identified access to land, security and transportation as some of the challenges farmers in the nation’s capital were facing, noting that the team had to intervene to address some of the challenges.

Some of the participants who spoke on the training, commented WOFAN for the gesture, saying their interventions would go a long way to improve agricultural output in the country.