By Mustapha Muhammad
The Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kano’s population explosion has been a major concern especially on efforts to increase food production and productivity, creation of jobs, empowering youth and women, hence, encouraging farmers to cultivate more cereal and leguminous crops and agricultural value chain is inevitable.
This is why the Kano State Governor, his Excellency Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, keeps transforming the agricultural sector on the three key areas: enhancing production and productivity, processing and marketing.
In his campaign Blueprint, in 2023 general elections, he promised to transform agricultural sector, through mechanized farming, imparting knowledge to the farmers to adopt global best practices of agriculture, and provision of improved seeds as well as provision of farm inputs.
Let me begin X-raying the efforts of the administration of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf on transforming agricultural development in Kano; citing success stories of one project out of similar dozens of them in Kano. That’s Kano State Agro-pastoral Development Project (KSADP).
The Kano State Agro Pastoral Development Project KSADP a project financed by the Islamic development Bank (IsDB), Live and Livelihood Fund (LLF) in collaboration with Kano State Government has been given interventions to enhance food production, reduce poverty and uplifting the livelihoods in Kano state.
Kano being the most populous state in Nigeria with huge arable and irrigable land for agricultural purposes, the KSADP has targeted leguminous and cereals crops enhancing productivity and value chain of agro pastoralism. The project benefitted over 1.2 million people directly and the multiplier effects indirectly touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the State.
The Kano State Agricultural Development Authority (KNARDA) as an executing agency has also a mandate on leguminous crops while SASAKAWA for the cereal crops; all of which has been a great success.
The interventions for leguminous crops alone on production, processing and marketing have deliberately and directly targeted 100,000 farmers that include: youth, men and women through different agricultural value chain among the three leguminous crops selected; namely: Soybeans, cowpea and groundnut. These are the crops that both benefit human beings and livestock and can grow very well in all parts of Kano State.
The project imparted the agricultural best practices knowledge to the farmers that could generate more yield from a small parcel of land: the farmers have benefitted from this technical know-how and applied it making a huge profit.
The well-trained extension workers of the Agency applied the Small Plot Adoption Trial method for the farmers to differentiate between the olden day farming and the global best practices of agriculture.
Moreover, the program has also introduced farmers to the new improved seeds of soybeans, cowpea and groundnut and helped them grow and spread the seeds.
The research institutes of IITA and ICRISAT were assigned to produce a foundation seeds and breeder seeds. The seeds with high yield, drought tolerance, and fodder for animal feeds.
It was a very successful move as the farmers have tested and trusted the seeds, now they are growing the seeds and spread it across the 44-local government areas of the states.
The yield of the farm produce and the fodder after the harvest cajole the farmers to embrace it, some of the farmers have since become seed producers through this intervention.
The project has identified some agricultural value addition on these three crops after the harvest; adding nutritional value of the food we eat and food security. It emanates from the raw farm produce to a finished food recipe, like soya kabaab, cowpea dabblings, protein rich powder loosely translated as Garin Bul Bul etc.
The KNARDA / KSADP have trained group of women on how to produce these nutritious recipes from the three leguminous crops.
This gives nutrition to children and another way round the women have an opportunity to earn a living with the little they get from the sales.
Another group of women are being empowered with milling oil machine to help them fight poverty and create jobs opportunity, as well as enriching financial inclusiveness.
The trained woman farmers; help the family with what they earn and organize themselves to form a small medium factory to expand their work.
Apart from the provision of oil pressing machine to the women farmers, the project has also targeted 100 different women groups and each group has 25 members making a total of 2, 500 women for best agricultural practices.
The project on the three leguminous crops have changed the lives of thousands of rural women farmers positively.
Thanks to Kano state Agro-pastoral Development Project KSADP and Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) the technology Disseminating Based Agency and a prime mover of the productivity and enhancement in Kano state agricultural development; through training, research, and application of modern farming technologies.
It is scientifically proven that cowpea one of the leguminous crops for this project need chemical spray from time to time for effectiveness and better yield. This is why the project have trained 700 youths on best practices of chemicals spraying on the farms.
They acquire the knowledge on how to apply the spray, the timing for the spray and the kits to be used for protection.
The chemical spray might have bad health circumstances to the men sprayers, but now with this knowledge the story has changed, they were trained on the global best practices of chemical spray, not only that but they are being given kits to protect themselves.
One of the challenges of rural farmers is how to get access to finances and develop crops further, this is why Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf’s administration through the Kano State Agricultural Development Authority KNARDA and KSADP made effort to boast the farmers access to finances, hence, it has organized a meeting between the farmers and financial institutions. This keeps them abreast on how to secure loan and expand the crops cultivation.
No doubt, the interventions of the Kano State Agro-pastoral Development Project on the three leguminous crops of groundnut, soybeans and cowpea, through Kano State Rural and Agricultural Development Authority has been a great success, changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmers and value chain beneficiaries directly or indirectly.
Above all, is the efforts of the KNARDA linking the farmers to the markets, opening more opportunities for them to penetrate into the Africa’s grain markets (Dawanau) that can sell their farm produce.
In a nutshell, the project has provided improved seeds and keep spreading, the farmers were taught the best practices of agriculture, and youth are being empowered through jobs and wealth creation.
Women were introduced into making recipes from the three leguminous crops, providing nutritious food and fighting malnutrition at the same time.
In an interview recently, the Managing Director of Kano State Agricultural Development Authority (KNARDA) Dr Farouk Ahmad Kurawa, quoted to have said, “I am forecasting Kano would be on leading role like during the time of Audu Bako.”
For the KSADP State Project Coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Gama once said to journalists recently, “my happiest moment is that the farmers adopting the new techniques of agricultural global best practices.”
This agricultural transformation is just the tip of an ice berg, more will come in the next write ups. No doubt, the agricultural transformation is the Pride of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf.
Mustapha Muhammad, is the Chief Press Secretary to the Kano State Governor Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, writes from Ancient City of Kano.