In a bid to boost crop and animal production, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (FMoWA) have partnered with Lima Machinery Company, a Chinese firm, to train women farmers on mechanised farming.
This was made known by the Minister of women affairs, Barrister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, while receiving some staff members of the Chinese company at her office, on Friday, in Abuja.
According to her, the aim of the partnership included improving the lives of grassroots women, increasing revenue generation, promoting food security and overall national development.
She said: “They, (Chinese firm), will give us modernised and mechanised farming tools to make it easy for Nigerians to do these work, which will help them to make more proceeds without overworking themselves so that we will multiply what we used to get before, sell cheaper and Nigerians will get more food.
She further disclosed that the collaboration is primarily focused on the rice milling project and provision of mechanised farming tools for sustainable empowerment of women in Nigeria.
She stated that Fish Grilling Machines locally fabricated to grill 500 fishes every two hours powered with gas, biogas and charcoal would be distributed as part of its sustainable empowerment programs for women in Nigeria.
The minister added that a platform will be set-up to link buyers, distributors, sellers, advertisers, marketers both at the local and international markets, alongside the establishment of business hubs to sell off excess produce that will yield huge profits for the farmers.
“We are also planning for them to have a butchering locations, (abattoirs), in each of those hubs, so that they can go there butcher, package with machines and freeze to be distributed across the nation, which will bring down the cost of food and enable the farmers get more money,” she added.
Also speaking, the Sales Manager of Lima Machinery Company China, Gatsby Kang, said the collaboration would strengthen the existing bilateral relationship between China and Nigeria.
“We want to use our equipment to help the local people using machines, because technology can bring huge yield in production and make a meaningful difference in their lives,’’ he said.
He added that feeds produced would be healthy, containing locally sourced food in right proportions to boost the growth and development of the animals that will be feeding on them.