BUK , FG train farmers on drip irrigation system

The Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, trained farmers on Drip Irrigation System and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) in Vegetable Production for Irrigation Farming Groups in Kano State.

Solacebase reports that the training was organized to address some of the new threats and challenges facing national food security.

The farmers were trained on the adoption of the use of drip irrigation system with a view of conducting step down training among farmers in their respective clusters in Kano State.

The CDA, an Africa Centre of Excellence with specialization and modern drip irrigation facilities conducted the training on farmers selected from three clusters, Kadawa, Bagwai and Thomas Dambatta of Kano State.

According to the Director, Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA), Professor Jibrin Mohammed Jibrin, said he was highly impressed with the level of understanding and the knowledge gained by the farmer groups during the three-day training, saying that they were expected to transfer what they acquired to other farmer groups in their farming areas.

He said it was one of the best training conducted by the CDA because the participants would actualize what they have learnt especially being impressed with many ladies as leaders of farmer groups. It means you are going to learn and disseminate as it comes with a lot of responsibility.

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“You owe it to yourself, to farmer groups, your communities and the Almighty to ensure that the resources spent on you to organize this training is not wasted”, the Director said.

Prof Jibrin further said the trainees were exposed to the adoption of new technology in irrigation farming, noting that CDA through its Outreach system is ready to help farmer groups with any assistance needed.

He told the participants that the CDA would establish an entrepreneurship centre that will engage farmer groups on the issue of value addition, development of business plan and mentorship. He thanked the Federal Ministry of Agriculture through the Federal Department of Agriculture for giving the CDA the opportunity to run the training, assuring that the centre is ready to have more collaboration with the ministry on this nature.

In his remark, the Assistant Director Crop Management, Alhaji Adamu Munir, said the trainees should be grateful for being selected out of millions of youth in Kano State. He said they have heavy responsibility of sharing what they learned to their communities.

According to him, The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono is an advocate of engaging youth in agriculture as a business. He said other parts of the country have gone far in agribusiness, saying that we have to tap the abundant potentials in agriculture.

The trainees commended the Centre for Dryland Agriculture for imparting a new technological means of irrigation farming in them and expressed appreciation to the Ministry for selecting them to be part of the training.

Asma’u Mohammed Sani, who specializes in the production and processing of tomatoes, said she had been in the business for a long time, but she had seen an innovation that makes her farming easier, assuring that she would use the training to upgrade her business.

Isyaku Mohammed and Salma Bashir Yahya said they only knew that little water could be utilized maximally to satisfy a large area, noting that the skills would be put to use.

A highlight of the training was the distribution of drip irrigation kits and water pump to all the participants by the Ministry.