Kano to vaccinate 5.5m livestock

As part of efforts to create value addition in livestock production, the Kano State Agro-pastoral Development Project vaccinated more 4.5 million in the last three years.

In an interview with Weekend Trust, the coordinator of the project, Ibrahim Garba Muhammad, said its target was to vaccinate 5.5 million livestock, noting that the vaccination is ongoing.

He said, “I don’t think there is any state in this country that is proud of vaccinating up to 2 million livestock in three years, but Kano has done that and so many other things, including investing over N1 billion in training pastoralists on milk handling.”

Muhammad said the KSADP had provided veterinary clinic at the Danshosiya grazing reserve, where they planted fiddler’s covering 2,000 hectares to increase availability of animal feeds.

Another 1,000 hectares of land is developed in 20 areas, with 20 hectares in each, to be handed over to private businesses that are into fodder production.

As part of KSADP’s livestock value addition and market access project, the KofarWambai Fura da Nono market was upgraded and provided with cold storage room, where over 3,000 members can benefit.

Similarly, 98 milk collection centres have been completed, out of which 40 are fully equipped with a functional cold storage facility.

The coordinator said that when the remaining centres become operational, they would be capable of providing 15 million litres of milk annually, noting that pastoralists and milk off-takers find it easy and convenient to use the milk collection centres.

The Kano State Agro-pastoral development Project is financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to the tune of $95 million divided into agro-pastoral production enhancement, value addition and market access, as well as training and coaching for livestock activities.

The economic and market impact of the project has hit N39.2 billion on aggregated produce sales in less than five years through strengthened market system and ICT-enabled market information, according to a document highlighting performance results of the project.

The KSADP, through its mechanisation support, 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 shows 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.

The coordinator of the project revealed that the idea of mechanisation support to farmers was not only to increase yield but also to reduce post-harvest losses, noting that the Danawau International Grains Market was upgraded with 7 kilometres of road and market information system to support modern grain 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 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 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 and community association trainer cards with banking services and internet facility so that they can transact business with other external markets,” the coordinator said.

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

The IsDB approved the sum of $95 million for the Kano State Agro-pastoral Development Project in December, 2017 with the bank providing $83.2 million US, Life and Livelihoods Fund, LLF, contributing $6.8 million. Kano State Government’s counterpart funding was $5 million US.

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

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