Jonathan’s cheering news for Kano farmers

Many people were not aware of what was happening in the state’s agricultural sector until it was mentioned by President Jonathan, who took almost an hour in his speech to explain several gains Kano farmers benefited immensely from his administration’s agricultural policies in the last two years. It was cheering news. Since that day, the […]

Many people were not aware of what was happening in the state’s agricultural sector until it was mentioned by President Jonathan, who took almost an hour in his speech to explain several gains Kano farmers benefited immensely from his administration’s agricultural policies in the last two years. It was cheering news. Since that day, the issue has been the topic of discussion everywhere in Kano.
The president observed that his policy was to make agriculture a business rather that development programme. In Kano, for example, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has completed a new 25,000 metric tons silos at Gaya town, and is ready for commissioning.
 The vast area of Kadawa valley is being into the largest processing zone for tomato in Africa as the ministry designated the entire Kadawa-Bunkure as a Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ).
The private sector has risen to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Staple Crop Processing Zone. Dansa Foods of the Dangote Group is already investing 50 million US dollars to build a 1,200-ton-per day tomato processing plant, which when completed will be the largest tomato processing plant in Africa.   It is also cheering to hear that Kano cotton farmers have not been left out in this regard as the government had been supporting thousands of them with free high quality seeds, fertilizer and jute bags to harvest cotton. In fact, through this support the number of cotton farmers supported in the state rose from 1,500 in 2012 to 6,000 farmers by 2013.
Turning Kano into a big breadbasket for Nigeria would be a great achievement. And that could mean that his April 15 dance to welcome former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau to the PDP fold was not all in vain after all.

Nayaya Tanko Shanono, Court Road, Kano