Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has approved the distribution of 500 trucks of fertiliser out of which 240,000 bags had been released free to 120,000 smallholder farmers.
The governor said the state made history by carrying out the largest free fertiliser distribution in Nigeria, with female farmers being the main beneficiaries of the exercise.
Governor Sani, who disclosed this at the Women’s Economic Empowerment Summit in Kaduna yesterday, said revitalisation of the agricultural sector was one of the key priorities of his administration, and the state government had recorded positive outcomes.
He said the initiative was a game-changer for Kaduna farmers, restoring their livelihoods and driving increased productivity across the state.
Sani said 65,848 women out of 70,051 beneficiaries had gained from the state’s Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme.
The governor also launched the Kaduna State Women Economic Empowerment Policy alongside the Women Peace and Security Action Plan.
He said his administration had trained over 5,000 rural and semi-urban women on large scale rice shelling using modern agricultural techniques in order to increase productivity, high input processing and profit in addition to reducing labour costs and improving quality of products.
Sani added that over 120 women and adolescent girls had been equipped with various vocational and entrepreneurship development skills.
He said his administration was investing in women because doing so was investing in not just the economy but the future of the state, adding that the government was set to intensify efforts in strategic areas to improve the state’s economic landscape.’
‘’Because of the critical role women play in agriculture, especially in smallholder farming, we have been specifically targeting them in our agricultural empowerment programmes.
‘’Under the remarkable palliative programme, Sustainable Livelihoods Through Social Interventions and Economic Empowerment, the Get Back to Farm initiative (A Koma Gona) has breathed new life into our agricultural sector,’’ the governor said.
