Agriculture

92 organic farmers receive certificates in Kaduna

92 organic farmers under the SCL Project Juriya Mutual Trust Groups (MTGs) in Kaduna State have been presented with certificates of registration by the Director, Cooperatives Societies Regulation, Kaduna State.

This followed a detailed briefing delivered by the SCL’s Agricultural Finance Expert, Mr Joram Nganga as the MTG Leaders return to their communities to begin the process of managing their various groups.

Speaking on the. overview of SCL Project Juriya MTGs project, Blessing Stephen lead Delivery Manager said, the project which is in partnership with Mastercard Foundation for a period of 5 years is designed to bring smallholder farmers who are participating in Regenerative Agriculture practices (Organic farming) into groups where they can leverage economies of scale through cooperative management systems.

So far, no fewer than 4,818 smallholder farmer households have been on board in Kaduna State, 3,320 females of whom 1,615 are female youth, 370 are people living with disability and 1,047 are internally displaced persons..

She said, 23 Field Agents (FA) have been trained on Regenerative Agricultural integrated Crops, trees and livestock (RA ICTL) practices and serve as RA Ambassadors in their communities which will contribute to youth in the work target.

” As at October, 2023, 3,946 households have received farm inputs (Seeds, seedlings and compost. Inputs have also been distributed to all the 23 demo plots, 4,180 households have had their farms validated for adoptions of RA ICTL.”

The Lead Delivery Manager disclosed that each FA is assigned a minimum target of 200 households within the community to participate in the project, while a total of 72,000 smallholder farmers are to be onboarded into Project Juriya across implementation states of which 70 per cent to be female while 75 per cent will be youth.

She also disclosed that the FA are to secure centrally located sites for demonstration plots establishment from community Leaders/stakeholders and thereafter households are expected to replicate learnings from the demo plots on their validated one-acre farmland.

Meanwhile, the financial inclusion for participating households through the formation of MTGs is meant to aggregate their resources and build stronger economies of scale amongst themselves, she stated.

Sa’i‘anwara’I’jumai Consultaire Limited (SCL), SCL is an indigenous private sector agro-allied enterprise established in 2010 whose purpose is to Seed diverse and interconnected African agri-business models for future food systems to enable the rise of purposeful and sustainable communities.

The cornerstone of SCL’s operation lies in an expertly skilled technical workforce, overseen by a leadership team boasting a combined 150 years of corporate management expertise.

Some of the benefits associated with Project Juriya include restoration of the soil health, boosting farm resilience enhancing biodiversity, bolstering local economies, securing food supply and mitigating climate change.

SCL Project Juriya is being implemented in 3 states namely Kaduna, Adamawa and Nasarawa States.

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