Perspectives Volume 40, Number 1 | Page 21

Nurturing Agriculture: From Culture to Business To Maryam Hassan, farming is culture. Maryam is a 44-year-old woman from Tsamiya village in Markarfi LGA, Kaduna state. She became engaged in agriculture as a child, accompanying her parents to their family farm to help weed and prepare the land for planting. Now Maryam is married, with five children and is doing what she knows best – farming. In May 2014, Maryam learned about the Nigeria Agro-Input Support (NAIS) project through an agro-dealer in her village. He convinced her to participate to improve her knowledge on new farming methods. Under the NAIS project, Maryam was selected as a lead farmer, and has introduced more than 200 women to the project. Since then, she and her colleagues participated in several agricultural training programs delivered by NAIS. These trainings taught he ȁ