The Gombe government has commended the implementation of viable agriculture development programmes initiated by the Sasakawa Africa Association’s (SAA) in the state.
SAA is an International Non-governmental Organisation (iNGO), focusing on enhancing farmer access to inputs and enterprising skills, to improve livelihoods and achieve food security.
Mr Barnabas Malle, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives, said this during a courtesy visit by a team of SAA officials, on Monday in Gombe.
The SAA team is in the state as part of its media field tour in participating communities.
Malle said the association has done a lot towards transforming agriculture, adding that its intervention boosted crop yields and farmer income.
“Your efforts are not in vain as the farmers are now getting good yields, more incomes and enjoying their yields.
“This helped in changing the narrative in terms of productivity and income generation for farmers.
“As you go round, you will hear more of the good works of SAA from farmers on how they were taught to plant, apply farm inputs and observe good agronomic practices” he said.
Some of the farmers in Billiri and Shongom Local Government Areas of the state, expressed joy over the implementation of the Sasakawa intervention in their communities.
Mr Yila Sukar, the District Head of Popandi Tal in Billiri, described the intervention as a game changer in the agriculture sector, adding that sustained interventions by the association would moved farmers out of hunger and poverty.
He called for more interventions to enable them to consolidate on the gains achieved under the programme, adding that, “it is complementing government’s efforts towards achieving food security in the country”.
Also, Ignatius Alhaji and Altine kiliyobas, said the intervention exposed them to the best agronomic practices that enabled them to improved yields per hectre.
“I cultivated maize and soybean on my one hectare farmland yearly, and harvested two and a half bag of the produce.
“But this year, with Sasakawa’s support, I harvested five and a half bag of maize, and two and a half bag of soybeans from the same piece of land which is over 200 per cent increase,” Alhaji said.
kiliyobas said the association had trained and distributed improved seeds to women farmers at Yateren community in Shongom LGA.
She said they had been exposed to preservation techniques to guard against post-harvest losses associated with poor storage facilites.
“We are also taught on how to process our available food to improve nutritional intake of our children and households.
“This empowered us to process produce and make good money while we also feed our family,” she said.
