) Sasakawa Association Africa (SAA), an international agriculture intervention group, says it will provide extension services to 550,000 farmers in Kano State under the State’s Agro-Pastoral Development Programme.
The Deputy Country Director of the SAA, Dr Abdulhamid Gambo, told newsmen on Tuesday in Kano that the programme was focused at promoting crop value chains, processing and business development.
Gambo said that under the programme, which would be implemented in collaboration with the Kano Agriculture and Rural Development Agency (KNARDA), SAA would train 400,000 farmers in modern farming techniques, while 100,000 others would be trained by KNARDA.
“The project is aimed at exposing farmers to modern technologies in crop production, preservation, processing and value addition. It will also encourage livestock production to achieve specialization and food security,” he said.
The SAA director said the association would also provide services to encourage production of cereals, legumes and vegetables in the 44 local government areas of the state, listing the commodities to be promoted to include rice, millet, maize, sorghum, tomatoes, onions and cabbage, among others.
According to him, the association had employed the use of digital tools and electronic means in its farmer education programme to encourage productivity in the state.
Accordingly, Gambo explained that the association would be providing training to the farmers under the Community Demonstration Plot (COP), Technology Adaptation Plot (TAP) and Model Adaptation Plot (MAP) modules, adding that the association had so far established five Aggregation Centres in the state, with plans to establish 22 more centres with the support of the state government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sasakawa Association Africa (SAA) has been providing agriculture support services to farmers for the past 20 years, in 18 states in the federation, in partnership with the federal and participating state governments.
