Africarice Trains Kano Youths On Enhancing Rice Value Chain

Abubakar Haruna Galadanchi

Africa Rice research center has trained 28 rice farmers in handling and maintenance of thresher Machines, specially fabricated for paddy harvest and production.

The intervention, an Africa Development Bank funded project, focuses on food security and poverty alleviation through capacity building to boost local production of Rice, Maize and Wheat in Africa.

The beneficiaries, predominantly youths, which cut across five local government areas Kura, Garun-Mallam, Dawakin Kudu, Warawa and Bunkure, were equipped with the nitty-gritty of business development plan.

Speaking at a ceremony, which marks the end of the training, AfricaRice monitoring and evaluation specialist, Mr. Attiogbevi-Sonado Kafu-Ata, told journalists that the three weeks capacity building was targeted at empowering young Rice farmers and check restiveness in Northern Nigeria.

Kafu-Ata said that investment on Rice production in Nigeria was part of Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa SARD-SC on Rice, Maize and Wheat designed for 11 African countries.

“The African Development Bank funded project is being implemented by SARS-SC, a multi-national consortium through three international research centers including IITA, ICARDA and AfricaRice entrusted with cardinal trust of providing technology, capacity building and monitoring the workability of the agricultural empowerment initiative and would be run for five years between 2012 and 2017, across the 11 countries.

He said the benefiting countries are Benin, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Senegal, Sierra-Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Madagascar.

According to Kafu-Ata, “the project is mainly targeting to empower individual and group Rice farmers including women and youth. At the end of the training we do hope the beneficiaries would make best use of the opportunity to make wealth and develop self-sufficiency.

We do believe when youths are gainfully engaged it will end needless restiveness and we want to urge the beneficiaries of these threshers to make good use of them. That can only encourage us to do more.”

Managing director, Kano State Agricultural Development Authority, Prof. Muhammed Danaji, said the state government has commenced registration of 10,000 Rice farmers to benefit from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Rice anchor borrowers’ program.

He reminded them that the Federal Government’s intervention will enable registered Rice farmers benefit high quality seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and significant capital for production, saying the initiative would further improve massive production of Rice locally.

At the end of the training, AfricaRice disbursed six thresher machines to the local government areas where participants were drawn.  The thresher, manufactured by HANIGAH, fabricated to separate grains from store, possesses capacity to process 2.5 tons of paddy per hour.