Kano State, with over 20 million population is an agrarian society with about 60 percent of its population engaged in active agriculture in a small, medium and large scale.
The farming population in the state is dominated by smallholder farmers, who farm majorly for the purpose of consumption and sometimes sell when there are left-overs.
The Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project in conjunction with Sasakawa Africa Association (KSADP/SAA) is implementing projects in Kano State which aims at improving crop production and improving the livelihood of farmers.
The project is funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Lives and Livelihood Fund (LLF) and government of Kano State. The executing agency of the project is the Kano State Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), with SAA as the technical partner.
KSADP/SAA recently organised a media tour to some of the selected projects in different local government areas in the state to assess the impact of the project on the rural communities.
SAA, which is implementing the project guides its operations along three pillars of Regenerative Agriculture, Market-Oriented Agriculture and Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture.
In Kura Local Government and Garun Mallam Local Government in Kano State, the KSADP/SAA project trained three groups of women with 25 members each on tomato processing.
The women groups trained were Rimin Bunu Women Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Kura LGA and Ajuru Women Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Garun Mallam LGA.
The aim of the training is to increase the nutrition in the locally processed tomato, to reduce postharvest losses and generate income for the women who sell these processed tomatoes in the market when the price appreciates.
Sadiq Hamman, Program Officer, Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture, KSADP/SAA, explained that “these are the three groups that we trained last year. We trained them on how to process fresh tomatoes and preserve it for a certain period so that they can take advantage of the gluts during harvest.”
According to him, this will also reduce post-harvest losses. The women were trained how to process the tomato in a hygienic way and sell it for domestic consumption.
Also in Kura community, Kura Local Government Area, through the regenerative agriculture pillar, SAA established a demonstration plot for women farmers which served as a training school for other farmer farmers.
The farmers learn practices that SAA is promoting or the technologies that they need to adopt, which are climate sensitive and economical.
Through this model, SAA introduced climate smart practices that are considerate of the change in the climate; this helps farmers to adapt to the new realities as they recognise that climate change is real.
In regenerative agriculture, SAA promotes improved and climate resilient varieties that are also nutritious for farmers to cultivate. Regenerative agriculture also implies taking care of the soil health which is a priority, because it is important that agricultural activities do not deplete the soil.
SAA established these demonstration plots (0.5 hectares) in clusters where it will service about 250 farmers. One of the things they do there is to promote a rice variety called Faro 44, and in this demonstration centre, they also promote organic crop produce.
SAA introduced the Faro 44 variety to the women farmers, supported them with all the inputs and taught them the good agronomic practices, provided them with organic fertilisers, organic pesticides and herbicides.
Faro 44 has a yield potential of seven to ten tonnes per hectare, as the women farmers harvested 38 bags which equates 3.8 tons on 0.5 hectares, an exceptional performance.
In Yan Albasa Gun-Dutse Market, Kura Local Government, KSADP/SAA project established aerated onion storage technology that can preserve 20 tonnes of onion (200 bags).
Sadiq said that they established three of the technology last year and they are establishing 20 units this year, with a unit capacity being five tonnes. He said the project is targeting major onion markets in the state.
“It is a simple technology for the storage of onions. it can contain 25 bags per unit, making it a total of 200 bags onions (20 tonnes). It is a simple technology powered by solar. The base is an open space, the fan supplies air to the base, when the air is saturated at the base, it comes up because the onion does not require too much air.
“The technology is newly installed. We established three last year and we are establishing 20 units this year, a unit capacity is five tonnes, we are targeting major onion markets. With this technology, you can store onion for up to six months to eight months”, Sadiq said.
Under nutrition sensitive agriculture, SAA trained 45 fabricators in collaboration with the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The fabricators were trained to manufacture agricultural machines locally, with the aim of reducing the cost of importing agricultural machines, to create jobs and to also solve the problem of maintenance.
Sadiq said SAA has been promoting agricultural pre and postharvest machineries so that they will reduce postharvest losses and increase value addition.
“Most of these machineries are imported, but because of the high cost of the machines, we are trying to see how we can allow farmers have access to some at a lower cost. This is the reason why we engaged local fabricators so that they will be trained in order to replicate some of these machineries like the threshers and some simple machines like the planters.
“We provided the trainees with everything they needed to do the work, to enable them fabricate some of the machines the farmers need in their farms for production,” he said.
Hassan Musa, a beneficiary of the training in Fegi Local Government Area, said he learnt a lot and he is applying what he learnt in the training. He said he was given all the equipment for his fabrication and has now employed 15 persons under him.
In Garo, Kabo Local Government Area, SAA provided medium scale rice milling machine to a group of women who initially travel about 50km to mill their parboiled rice.
Hajia Abu Nuhu, the leader of the women said since they got this intervention, they have been able to start a provision shop from the money they made from the business, they also have a place where they sell water and soft drink and they have created employment.
She said they employed a university graduate who serves as the manager of the rice milling factory.
In Gwarzo Local Government Area, SAA established a seed plot where they try to diffuse quality and improved seed to farmers across the project intervention areas in the 44 local governments in the state.
Albert Taru Mathias, Program Officer, Regenerative Agriculture, KSADP/SAA said “part what we do in Regenerative Agriculture is to guide farmers through the process of production, showing them the good agronomic practices and the essence of using quality and improved plant materials to produce their food.
A beneficiary of the project, Alhaji Aminu Gwarzo said they were trained on how to cultivate maize which is different from their usual practice. He said SAA also taught the farmers issues relating to plant population which they don’t make the optimum use of the land areas.
Gwarzo added that they were given free farm inputs from the project such as fertiliser, herbicide, seeds and others.
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