KANO TRAINS 660 YOUTH AND WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE

Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje

The Kano State Commercial Agriculture Development Project under its Capacity Building and Empowerment Program recently trained 660 women and youth in Poultry, Dairy, Fisheries, Rice and Maize.

The 16-days Training program which took place at Audu Bako College of Agriculture Danbatta focused on the training of farmers and there after assist them to develop their capacities to plan and execute investment plans.

It is a World Bank assisted program under a tripartite  arrangement between the Bank, federal and states Governments, and is designed to strengthened agricultural production systems and facilitate access to market for targeted value chains among small and medium scale commercial farmers in five states namely, Kano, Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna and Lagos.

Declaring the training programme open, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State, disclosed that the first batch of 170 beneficiaries  have started benefitting 50 percent of World Bank grant adding that the additional 660 prospective beneficiaries will be provided with the grant by the bank in collaboration with the state Government.

Speaking in the same vein, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources Hajiya Binta Kabiru, and the managing director Kano state Agricultural and rural development authority-KNARDA pro. Mahmud Danefi commended the government for giving special recognition to Agricultural sector.

The State project Co-coordinator of  the Commercial Agricultural Development Project, Salisu Kalla explained that out of the five participating states, Kano has the highest number of beneficiaries.

He stated that the 660 beneficiaries were selected out of over 3000 candidates that sat for the screening exercise.

Food-farm News spoke to a number of Resource persons and participating beneficiaries in the various categories on the training and knowledge acquired.    Dr Ibrahim S. Modabi, Suleiman A. Suleiman and Dr.  Junaidu Y were in charge of Dairy where milk processing was taught beneficiaries to produce yoghurt, milk cheese and butter from cow milk.

Dr, Ibrahim commended participants for demonstrating high level of curiosity to learn with the manner they ask questions. He disclosed that the first batch of beneficiaries were already in small-Enterprises production and viable businesses, where 300-3000 finished products are sold daily. Ibrahim stated further that beneficiaries could start processing and production from their homes. The Trainers drawn from Audu Bako College of Agriculture were unanimous that all the participants at the 16 days training were capable of growing into bigger production Enterprise if funded and provided with equipment and constant power supply. 

Reacting Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Zakari who is a beneficiary described the programme as a step to self-employment and self dependant especially the windows who can now stand on their families financial challenges. She expressed satisfaction with the practical aspect of the training which can be easily acquired by the less educated participants.

Another beneficiary Ibrahim Tijani who has been a Poultry Farmer for the past two years was full of appreciation for the training as it has improved his theoretical and practical aspect on how to be a successful poultry farmer. According to him he now knows how to produce, prepare and market poultry products.

 Junaidu Abdullahi of the A B College of Agriculture who was a trainer of the programme said any participant who attained 70% participation would become an effective poultry farmer.Junaid decried the situation where most Poultry Farmers in Nigeria are not property trained therefore not able to spread the skills and scientific knowledge required for the growth of poultry needs of Nigeria.

Umar Yusuf Yawale is one of the beneficiaries trained in Aquaculture. He is a University graduate and confessed that his thought of seeking white color job have vanished and was now ready to become a fulltime Fish-Farmer with acquired knowledge on how to run a scientific Fish-Farm.