British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) Interventions Benefit 18,000 Farmers

The capacity building initiatives by British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) since 2002 have impacted over 18,000 smallholder farmers in many parts of the country, the Foundation's Executive Director Abimbola Okoya has disclosed.

She dropped the hint at the second edition of the National Agriculture and the Smallholder Farmers Dialogue in Abuja.

The session focused on sustainable agriculture and how smallholder farmers that constitute 70 percent of the farming population in Nigeria, can benefit from the successful implementation of the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP).

Okoya said that in the 15 years of its existence, BAT Nigeria Foundation has trained large numbers of farmers on best agricultural practices, implemented over 150 projects nationwide and invested an excess of a billion naira on vocational skills acquisition, water supply and environment conservation.

"What we do often time is that we also work with government partners in terms of technical inputs that affect the life of the farmers and the local community as well. And we hope that our model will be used and emulated by other organisations, not only in Nigeria but across the world," Okoya said..