Through an innovative continuous professional development training programme, “Growing your business through preventive livestock healthcare”, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has aimed to address private sector veterinary paraprofessionals’ skills gaps and support them to develop successful businesses providing preventive livestock health services to small-scale farmers and pastoralists. These training courses were piloted in Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda in 2023 using a blended learning approach.
The agricultural and food security situation in Nigeria faces challenges such as limited resources, security issues, rural-urban migration, oil dependency, and infrastructure inadequacies. These problems are worsened by high inflation, reaching 25.8% in August 2023, largely due to fuel subsidy removal, currency devaluation, and security concerns in food-producing regions.