Mr Ignatius Alhaji, a 36-year-old farmer from Popandi Tal community in Billiri Local Government Area of Gombe State has expressed his satisfaction with Sasakawa Africa Association’s agricultural intervention in his community.
Alhaji told journalists during a media field tour organised by Sasakawa for benefitting communities in Gombe State, that the intervention had made agriculture more lucrative for him in view of what he got in the 2024 harvest.
He described the intervention as a “miracle in farming” because he got over 200 per cent of the yield he usually gets in spite of using the same piece of farmland.
He said the intervention exposed them to the best agronomic practices that enabled him to get improved yields per hectare.
“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.
According to him, the highest income he ever made from farming was less than N300, 000 but this year, he was expecting more than whatever he had been getting.
“Today, a big of soybeans is N100,000 and I have 2.5 bags meaning I will get N250, 000 as at now and if the price goes up, I make more.
“I have 5.5 bags of maize and a bag costs N65, 000 now meaning I have over N350, 000 monetary value of maize and if the price goes up I will get more.
“I am economically better today because of Sasakawa and I am eagerly waiting for another planting season with joy,” he said.
Another interesting part of Sasakawa’s intervention, Alhaji said was the kind of financial knowledge they got on how to operate their Cooperatives in the community which had helped them in generating nearly N2 million in less than a year.
“Before now, we have been operating the Cooperatives and over the years, managed to gather only N50, 000 but now it is a different story.
“We now give input loans to farmers in our Cooperative and doing well for ourselves,” he said.
Alhaji said that the intervention of Sasakawa had transformed all aspects of agriculture sector in their community which he said would help empower farmers out of poverty in the community.
