Farmers have been exposed to training opportunities, given inputs to boost their production, and urged to adopt embrace leave-bud cuttings innovations that would scale up their productivity and income. According to the Managing Director of the Kano Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), Dr. Farouk Kurawa, his agency, which is under the state’s Agro Pastoral Development Project (KSADP), is funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), with generous support from the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF).
The authority has distributed improved seed varieties to farmers in the state to facilitate improved agricultural practice that would ensure improved yield. Speaking at the field day on value chain intervention of the project, Kurawa revealed that a lot had been achieved through the project, saying that like many other parts of Nigeria, farmers in Kano State had been far from access to important extension service information, particularly those that are into dry season production.
The KSADP State Programme Coordinator, Ibrahim Garba, said the project was supporting government’s efforts to enhance agricultural productivity and competitiveness through access to inputs and credit, value addition and market access, extension service delivery and capacity strengthening while Muhammad Nahannu of KNARDA stated that the new beans variety had a higher yielding capacity than what the farmers were used to, with about 10 per cent more.
A farmer, Auwal Kumbotso disclosed that with the level of commitment shown by the state government, farming had been made more attractive than what it used to be. “We are satisfied with what we were given because these are seeds that have been tested and approved by the authorities. We can all attest to the fact that the result is indeed convincing.
As a farmer, I can testify that what I have harvested this year is twice that of last year”, Kumbotso said. In a similar vein, farmers have been informed of how to promote yam leave-bud cuttings and mini-tuber technologies for seed production. This piece of information was given at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) research centre in Abuja. The Head of Station, Dr. Beatrice Aighewi, who is a seed system specialist, said the yam innovations present the best opportunities for farmers across the country.
Aighewi disclosed that the new yam technology was developed under the Programme for Seed System Innovation of the Vegetatively Propagated Crops (PROSSIVA), which uses various innovations to rapidly produce quality seed yams. She said innovations “encourage seed entrepreneurs to adopt technologically and marketing advances for profitable certified seed yam businesses. The aim is to deliver quality seeds of improved varieties to yam producers”.
The Head of Station revealed that with the new technology, a farmer can get between 30 to 50 metric tonnes per hectare, as against the 10 tonnes they are currently getting from their field. On his part, an agronomist working on the technology, Dr. Daniel Aihebhoria, who conducted farmers round demo farms, said the outcome had been exciting, adding that farmers now have access to the best planting materials.
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