Agriculture
THE Kaduna State Government says it has provided needed platforms and enabling environment to attract investments into large scale farming in the state.
The Parmanent Secretary, State Ministry of Agriculture, Malam Sabi’u Sani, made the disclosure during a crop yield assessment tour to selected farms in Makarfi Local government Area on Thursday.
“The state is bringing in large scale farmers to be responsible and have access to technologies especially by facilitating capacity building of their operations and linking them to markets.
“The operators will be supported to be able to serve other farmers to bridge the gap in terms of availability and accessibility of technology,” Sani said.
According to him, the state government is committed towards attainment of food security through the application of technology for efficient crop yield.
“We will also increase the competence of the personnel that will handle the machines for them to deliver better value in terms of hours committed to work and durability of the equipments.
“We are reactivating our mechanical workshops and also looking for offers that are available by development financial institutions and create awareness for our farmers to key into the programmes.”
He urged farmers to acquire some of the basic facilities for their farming activities to increase the precision level of new blend fertilizer application for higher crop yield.
Sani said that acquiring modern facilities would minimise post harvest and wastages.
“I am convinced that the efforts of the government and development partners is working, as it is translating into healthier crops with optimism of bumper harvest.”
He appealed to farmers to embrace the use of modern farming methods that would add value to crop production and better livelihood.
The Permanent Secretary also tasked the farmers to leverage on certified technologies as demonstrated to them by the development partners and extension support team.
“We are also calling on you to report anything strange capable of causing problems to your farming activities.”
He said reporting strange happenings on their farms would enable the government to take print action.
The official said such actions would ensure farmers engage in profitable crop production and marketing that would attract investments.
The Director of Agriculture, Makarfi LG, Malam Ahmad Balarabe, who received the team, said they had achieved so much in Agriculture through the AGRA initiatives.
“80 per cent of our local farmers have embraced the AGRA innitiative, we thank them and the Kaduna government for the support and opportunity to us.
“We are indeed going to have a bumper harvest from the manner our crops are growing”, Balarabe said.
A Community Based Facilitator at the local government, Hajiya Halima Ibrahim, expressed happiness with the initiative.
“The innitiative brought to us by AGRA has really improved our yield, the process is also much easier and time saving, I planted my Soya beans using the drill planting method of 5cm spacing.
“The AGRA initiative has checked diseases and pests on the crops since I adopted the guidelines”, she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the team also visited Pampaida in Ikara LG, Value Seed at Kudan LG and an Agro dealer in Makarfi before concluding the three days tour of selected farms.
NAN recalled that the Kaduna State Government and AGRA on Sept. 15, embarked on a three-day on-the-spot assessment of selected farms to evaluate the 2020 crop yields in the state.
The assessment is sequel to the application of AGRA supported new research-based fertiliser blend to improve crop yields in the state.
NAN
– Sept. 17, 2020 @ 18:36 GMT |
Tags: Food security: Kaduna Govt assures of enabling environment for large scale farming
