Dissemination of AKILIMO in southeast Nigeria

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) organized trainings in Kogi and Benue states Nigeria to train cassava farmers on how to use tailored fertilizer recommendation (FR) from AKILIMO decision support tools.  

The training featured EBI Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Lift Up Care Foundation, Women In Agriculture, Kogi State, Initiative For Empowerment Of Vulnerable Persons, and Gemehaam Bees Ltd in Kogi State and Abia State, Nigeria in November 2020.

In Umuahia, Abia State, the training was focused on the directors of extension services on agricultural development projects so as to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the technical contents of AKILIMO tools, dissemination strategies, the data required, data collection tools and systems to be employed. Other elements of the training included integration of their systems and briefing on the roles and responsibilities of each partner. They are expected to extend the training to Frontline Extension Agents who will then take it to the farmers.

AKILIMO is a suite of agronomy advice tools that combines soil information, weather data, cassava growing trends to generate recommendations for cassava farmers based on their location on various aspects of cassava agronomy for optimum returns on their investment in cassava farming.

The training, overall, was aimed at teaching cassava farmers to apply the best agronomic practices through the AKILIMO tools recommendations to increase yield and income from cassava production.

National Roots Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), in conjunction with the ACAI scaling team, is also engaging partners through their frontline extension agents for a detailed introduction to AKILIMO contents, dissemination strategies, and the monitoring evaluation and learning system. All these are done in a bid to sustain AKILIMO even after the ACAI project is finished.