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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has commenced the training of another 75 farmers under the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) programme.
The programme is part of government’s resolve at deepening the digital transformation pillar of its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan, (SRAP) targeting enhancing the agricultural value chain,
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The five-day training holding inside the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State capital will end by the weekend with the presentation of seed funding and digital tools to beneficiaries to allow them leverage on smart farming.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, the team lead and Assistant Director, Digital Economy Development at NITDA, Dr. Ayodele Bakare admonished the beneficiaries to take the training seriously and give it their utmost attention as it could be a fortune changer for them.
Also, the programme Desk officer, Mr. Lukman Lamid enjoined them to be punctual as this is a criterion that ensures they get digital tools and seed funding. .
NAVSA, an initiative of NITDA under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, is modeled as a smart farming concept to provide the agricultural sector with the infrastructure that  could leverage emerging technology like big data, cloud, artificial intelligence, and internet of things (IoT) for tracking, monitoring, automation and analyzing farm operation.
The programme goals are to improved production and productivity of every adopted farmer on the NAVSA platform by 35 per cent; increase the income of every adopted farmer on NAVSA platform by 30 per cent at every harvest; improve production and productivity of any other farmers on NAVSA platform by 20 per cent and increase the income of any other farmer on NAVSA platform by 15 per cent at every harvest.
The programme has since adopted 835 farmers across five states of  Katsina, Ogun, Jigawa, Gombe, Ekiti and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and created almost 5000 direct and indirect jobs in the country.
