The federal government partnered Green Agriculture West Africa (GAWAL), a subsidiary of the Chinese General Construction Company (CGC), to train 5,000 women nationwide on modern rice farming technology.
The minister of women affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, said this at the graduation ceremony of the first phase of the rice cultivation technology training programme on Monday in Abuja.
She explained that the government would bring innovation in the area of animal farming, specifically cow rearing, under the programme.
Mrs Kennedy-Ohanenye said the programme would reduce poverty, and improve food sufficiency and economic empowerment at the grassroots.
She said that the ministry would use the bottom-top approach in its poverty intervention efforts to reach the targets.
She however added that “the Chinese company is giving our women high yield rice variety; they are going straight to the farmlands with it for planting.
“These women are totally prepared alongside the pumping machine that we are giving them from the ministry so that they can water their farms.
“This will also help them to plant this rice variety four times in a year, this will help us cultivate enough food for Nigerians.
“Every stage of this project will be recorded because Nigerians have the right to know what goes on in the country.
“And if we don’t carry them along, how will they know that there is hope and that the renewed hope is coming? We will show Nigerians the stage-by-stage progress of the project.