Sasakawa moves to cushion COVID-19 effects on farmers

Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000) said it had initiated a process through which farmers

Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000) said it had initiated a process through which farmers are linked with commodity buyers as a way of cushioning the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was disclosed by the organisation’s research and training officer, Mr Benjamin Shamaki, during a media field tour they organised.

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According to him, Sasakawa has trained farmers in Kano and Gombe states on effective utilisation of the aggregator facilities, as well as linking farmer associations with prospective buyers to ensure value for their produce, as well as ensure quality of what the farmers are selling during the pandemic period.

“We have trained women farmer groups, not only in modern farming techniques but also on value addition to their produce.

“We have encouraged them in the formation of associations, through which we successfully linked them up with buyers of their produce.

“They also produced along the value chain of a particular crop,’’ he revealed.

Similarly, the chairman of Bagwai Farmers Association, Malam Danladi Yahaya Bagwai, said farmers in the area were ready to make good use of the aggregator facilities provided for their agricultural sustainability by SG 2000, adding that they would ensure proper utilisation of the aggregator facilities.

According to him the COVID-19 pandemic has indeed negatively affected farming activities in various states of the federation, including Kano.

He added that without Sasakawa’s intervention, farmers in the area would have been out of business for long.

He further revealed that during the pandemic, farmers in the area were assisted with improved seed varieties, fertilizer and pesticides, which he said had helped them tremendously during the period.

The chairman also stated that the introduction of an aggregator facility, which serves as service providers to eliminate some of the marketing effort issues in the area, had helped farmers to store and access their produce with ease, as well as sell with high market value.

He said the aggregator facility had enabled farmers to collectively put their produce together in one centre and Sasakawa would connect them with mega companies that would buy the produce with value and in good market value.

“It has been on record that farmers in this area have been producing, but due to lack of proper marketing strategies, they usually ended up getting virtually small value of no value for their produce.

Sasakawa has established for us an effective aggregator centre, and it has equally provided us with the knowledge on how to effectively utilise this facility to increase our product’s market value.

No doubt our initial inability to put into practice a proper marketing strategy that will ensure effective gain in sale of our produce in the open market has negatively affected our productivity,” he said.

Similarly, according to the Sarkin Noma of Bagwai, Alhaji Bello Gurdo, in the irrigation site of Kano State, COVID-19 and its aftermath has made things harder for farmers.

He said the site, which is 1,562 hectares of land, had hundreds of farmers, both male and female working on it.

He added that the intervention received from SG 2000 had assisted the farmers to remain afloat during the period.