The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has said it has been able to reach out to over 600,000 farmers in Kaduna State where it has 28 percent women and over 40 per cent.
The Program Officer, AGRA Kaduna State, Dr Esther Ibrahim who stated this in an interview with journalists said the institution is partnering with Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria Micro Finance Bank, Sterling Bank, and Diamond Development Initiatives (DDI) to provide technical support to Small and Medium Enterprises so as to get access to finance in Kaduna state.
Ibrahim said AGRA has rolled out programs with the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) to support extension service delivery.
“What AGRA came in to do is to bridge the gap that existed between the farmers and the extension workers.
“What we found In Kaduna state was an extension ratio of one to 5,600, the public extension agents are retiring but not being replaced”, she said.
She added that AGRA has been able to support 99 women groups across the 23 local government areas.
“These people were trained and empowered with tools for rice processing.
“We have gotten high support from the government of Kaduna state particularly from the commissioner who gives us technical support and found time to go to the field with us to see exactly what we are doing and also give advice and direction.
“The Kaduna State Ministry of Local government is not left out because these activities are done at the grassroots level. We’ve gotten support from the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. They supported the up-scaling of our activities particularly for women In agricultural processing.
“We also have a partnership with Sasakawa Global 2000 where we promoted support for an increase in productivity, extension approach using the consortium model”.
Speaking further, she said AGRA has been able to increase the yield of the farmers it has worked with within Kaduna State.
“When we started, our base was 2.0 before AGRA’s intervention. For maize, we have been able to increase farmers’ yield to about 4.02 metric tons per hectare in areas where we have intervened.
“For rice, we have gone up to four metric tons per hectare, for cowpea, we have also increased to above 2 metric tons per hectare.
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