More than 80 community extension service providers yesterday graduated in Nzara County of Western Equatoria State after completing five weeks of intensive training in different fields of agriculture conducted by an indigenous organization, Community Organization for Development (COD).
Speaking during the graduation ceremony, James Mabu, the COD executive director, said 86 trainees benefited from the training aimed at impacting livelihood skills to the members of the community in the area to be self-reliant and to make agriculture attractive for young people.
“People look at agriculture as something to do with people like peasants, but that is not true. We want to make agriculture to be attractive, we want to make it a way of creating wealth, we want to make it a way of life, and we want to make it a business itself, that is our main focus,” Mabu said.
The secretary-general of the government of Western Equatoria State, Wilson Thomas Yanga, appreciated COD for the initiative to train the communities on agricultural skills, saying that agriculture is the backbone of the state.
Yanga urged the graduates to utilize the knowledge they acquired to change the style of farming in the state.
“Now you have acquired the knowledge and skills, it is you to go and put it into practice, you don't need to take the certificate and put it under your pillow and say you are a graduate of extension work. That will not make any sense, go, and help our communities. We cannot again go back and start the same traditional farming so we have to embrace the new models,” Yanga cautioned.
“I would also like to thank the tutors and the organization and especially the donors for making this project a reality. I want to appeal to them that this should not be the end of the road, it should continue as agriculture is the backbone of our country,” Yanga added.
Yanga said, as a government, they are going to support agriculture in the state and also engage other partners for support.
Speaking at the same event the graduates’ representative, Lea Yangada, said they have now acquired more knowledge due to the training.
Yangada further appealed to her fellow graduates to make sure they use the knowledge to empower their communities.
“We did not know what the impact of this training would be but today we testify that we know we now have enough knowledge and skills for the transformation of traditional agricultural practices into sustainable practices,” Yangada said.
The training had students from Nzara, Yambio, and Ibba counties, and those successful students were awarded a Certificate in Agriculture. This was the second batch to undergo the training.