IsDB: Aggregated farm produce sales generate N39.2bn in Kano

The economic and market impact of Kano State Agro-pastoral development Project KSADP being financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to the tune of $95 million has led to the realisation of N39.2 billion in aggregated produce sales in less than five years through strengthened market System and ICT-enabled market information, a document highlighting performance […]

The economic and market impact of Kano State Agro-pastoral development Project KSADP being financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to the tune of $95 million has led to the realisation of N39.2 billion in aggregated produce sales in less than five years through strengthened market System and ICT-enabled market information, a document highlighting performance results of the project has shown.

KSADP through its mechanisation support and technology and capacity-building initiatives, had established three large-scale Agricultural mechanisation centres in each of the  state’s three senatorial zones (Kadawa, Central; Danbatta, North; and Gaya South) where farmers were provided with 98 tractors and 48 combined harvesters.

The document also showed that the project sustained yield growth driven by technology adoption, training and farmer-led learning with N472.3 million realised in financial linkages as well as N972,462 average income increase per farmer.

Coordinator of the Project, Ibrahim Garba Muhammad in an interview said the idea of mechanisation support to farmers is not only to increase yield but also to reduce post harvest losses, noting that the Danawau International Grains Market was upgraded with 7 kilometres road and market information system to support modern grains marketing.

“If you talk about the production aspect and the technology transfer which are fundamental, if you want sustainable growth in agriculture, you need to have a workable technology that works for the farmers. For this, the project has invested a lot through Sasakawa and KNARDA where over 600,000 direct beneficiaries were supported with technology that improves their production with farmers’ yields increasing from 1.5MT to 4.5MT per hectare,” he added.

 

 

 

The coordinator also said 22 aggregation centres were established in 22 local government areas to encourage collective marketing and linkages.

 

 

 

“On the issue of marketing, the project constructed 23 aggregation storage facilities. It is not a mere storage facility where farmers store their produce, when operational, the centres will have extension workers on standby to have community associations, trainer cards with banking services, internet facility so that they can transact business with other external markets,” said the coordinator.

 

 

 

Grains for exports from the market were often rejected by receiving countries after chemical residue tests until the intervention of KSADP which trained the grain aggregators on best practices in preservation methods.

 

 

 

The IsDB approved the sum of 95 million dollars for the Kano State Agro-pastoral development project in December, 2017 with the bank providing 83.2 million US dollars, life and livelihoods fund (LLF) contributing $US6.8million and Kano State government’s counterpart funding was $US5 million.

 

 

 

The project commencement date was July 14, 2019 to run for five years but the COVID-19 pandemic led to extension of the project by six months.