AGRICULTURAL and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Kwara state has organised a two-day training workshop on export product development for Sesame Seed and Sorghum farmers in the North East geopolitical zone of the country.Speaking at the programme, the executive director of the institute, Dr. Olufemi Oladunni, said that it is high time Nigeria moved beyond merely growing what it eats and eating what it grows.“We should be feeding a large part of Africa and the world at large. And one of the ways to achieve this is by increasing the capacity of our farmers, providing enabling environment and inputs and leveraging on our areas of comparative advantage. Nigeria is blessed with arable land and very hardworking farmers. Our agricultural potential is very huge, not only to fully meet our own needs, but to achieve huge exportation goals thereby achieving food security and generating foreign exchange”. he ARMTI boss, said that the National Exportation workshop was focused on the export product development for Sesame and Sorghum; two commodities in which the farmers are proficient and in which Bauchi state has comparative advantage.“So, what ARMTI seeks to do through this workshop, is to first identify the challenges presently confronting our farmers along these two value chains, come up with viable solutions and strategies for these challenges, strengthen linkages among actors along these value chains and generally help to develop a feasible and functional model for sesame seed and sorghum export for improved foreign exchange earnings, poverty alleviation, improve gender equity and job creation. “Bauchi state is taking the lead with deliberate and decisive steps such as this, and ARMTI is proud to be involved with it. It is such intentional and strategic moves like this that we need to replicate nationwide in order for us to begin to actualise the rich agricultural potential that we possess as a nation.“The diversification of Nigeria’s economy away from over-dependence on crude oil is the pursuit of the current administration. This is rising from the dwindling income from oil export, the uncertainties that surround the oil sector (i.e., unreliability and non-sustainability of the income from the sector) given that oil is a non-renewable resource”, he said. Dr. Oladunni, who thanked the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, for continuing to enable and empower ARMTI to fulfil its mandate,added that the government had also provided the institute with needed cooperation and support.In the same vein, I must thank the National Assembly for providing the required appropriation to execute our proposals and objectives.Other participants at the training held in Bauchi include officials of the Agricultural Extension Agents, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Export Import (NEXIM) Bank, Bank of Industry (BOI), Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), etc.