The Federal Government will build 200 new artificial insemination centres across the country to boost agricultural activities, the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has said.
Ogbeh made the statement on Tuesday in Kano, while launching the 2015 dry season farming for wheat and rice farmers in the state.
He said the project was aimed at improving production of milk and meat through cross breeding using insemination of local livestock.
He said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would diversify the economy with greater emphasis on agriculture.
Ogbeh urged Nigerian youths to embrace agriculture to enhance their welfare and enable them become self reliant.
He said the Federal Government was determined to empower the youths through agriculture by providing farm land to each student of agriculture in Universities and Colleges of Agriculture across the country.
Earlier in his remarks, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State said his administration placed high premium on agriculture.
Ganduje said the government had released over N1 billion soft loan to rice farmers and N100 million to wheat farmers in the state to boost production.
Ganduje added that the government had spent over N40 million in constructing artificial insemination centres at Makoda and Kadawa to boost the production of milk and cattle.
The governor said his administration sponsored 60 pastoralists to learn modern insemination techniques in Turkey.
NAN.
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