The Acting Executive Director, Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Kwara State, Anthony Njoku has reiterated the institute's determination to help communities increase economic opportunities for local farmers and related businesses.

Njoku, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the institute's Training Workshop on Cassava Commodity Value Chain Development for participating communities in its Village Alive Development Initiative (VADI), said: "The Village Alive Development Initiative (VADI) is an action-research project of ARMTI to selected rural communities in our area of operation.

"The initiative is aimed at creating a sustainable and self-reliant community-based organisation for rural dwellers to initiate and implement programmes, which will improve their standard of living and social status, by reducing their level of poverty. It also provides field practicum complement for ARMTI courses while also serving as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the institute."

He disclosed that ARMTI has just acquired and installed two sets of cassava processing equipment in two of the participating communities. "Now we are conducting this four-day training workshop on cassava commodity value chain development for all our participating communities. Having identified our area of comparative advantage as a state, we are committed to provide all the support needed to achieve maximum leverage and dividends from it," he said.

The institute, he explained, has embarked on a different, locally-driven approach to help people access healthy local food and supports new businesses in the villages that need investment. With technical assistance through the scheme; he said participants are taking innovative approaches to common challenges, like launching business incubators to support food entrepreneurs.

So far, more than N10 million has being spent on eight rural communities in Kwara State under VALDI. The money was distributed by a commercial bank to villagers, forming contributory groups under a revolving loan arrangement.

During the during the kick-off of seed fund disbursement to seven participating communities under VADI in Ilorin, in 2014, the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed canvassed that modern and affordable technologies be made available for the nation's teeming farmers, while more robust policies should be formulated to sustain the interest of the overwhelming population in both agricultural and other business practices.

He noted: "This project is timely and would complement the new initiatives of the Kwara State Government as well as the Federal Government to shift the focus of citizens as beneficiaries of an oil-based economy to proponents of an agro-driven economy.

"Ironically, our strengths happen to lie in the vast agricultural resource potential of the state and the nation, and with the adoption of modern agro technology and agronomic practices that will be sustained for devoted farmers and coherent and stable development policies, we are certain that agricultural growth is a realisable objective in the not too distant future."