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At a workshop held in Abuja from May 17 to 20, 2022, CORAF strengthened the capacities of Nigerian players in effective and efficient farm business management. 

The workshop was organized as part of the Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development in West Africa(PAIRED) project.

In all, twenty-two (22) participants - 37% of them women - from Nigerian research institutes, the Nigerian Ministry of Agriculture and mainly members of innovation platforms involved in PAIRED activities in Nigeria, benefited from the training.

"PAIRED's overriding objective is to get West African farmers to adopt cutting-edge technologies and innovations developed by researchers, for sustainably increased agricultural production and inclusive economic development", recalls Dr Hippolyte AFFOGNON, PAIRED Coordinator at CORAF. 

Specifically, the second component of PAIRED aims to scale up proven technologies and innovations to boost agricultural productivity.

"For PAIRED to have the desired impact, it is crucial that it achieves the dual objective of increasing agricultural productivity, and improving the living conditions of farmers, more specifically smallholders", maintains Dr Caroline MAKAMTO SOBGUI, Technology Scaling Expert at CORAF. 

The expert asserts that failure to achieve this dual objective simultaneously runs the risk of keeping farmers in a vicious circle of poverty.  

"While encouraging farmers to adopt the technologies and innovations that meet their needs, it is imperative to equip them with the skills to manage their businesses properly, so that they are viable, sustainable and enable them to escape the poverty trap," she maintains.

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The training enabled participants to master entrepreneurial techniques and effective, efficient management of small agricultural enterprises, as well as the best marketing approaches for identifying and developing profitable agricultural markets.

In addition, beneficiaries have acquired knowledge that will enable them to transform their farming activities from subsistence farming to profitable, consistently competitive and sustainably operating agricultural enterprises, for their well-being and that of the whole community.

Training beneficiaries are expected to pass on the knowledge they have acquired to their farmer peers, for a massive dissemination of knowledge leading to more effective actions for inclusive development.

PAIRED is a five-year program implemented by CORAF since 2017. 

It is funded by the West Africa Regional Mission of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The countries of operation are: Benin, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.