The Jigawa State Government and the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) have signed a $100,000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve agriculture and its value chain over the next year.
This was disclosed by the Deputy Country Director of the Sasakawa Africa Association, Dr Abdulhamid Gambo, while addressing journalists shortly after meeting with the Jigawa State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Alhaji Muttaqa Namadi.
Dr Gambo stated that the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) has been operating in Jigawa State for over 30 years, providing various supports and interventions in agriculture, food production, and value chain development aimed at improving the livelihoods of rural women and youth, as well as enhancing food security.
Explaining the purpose of their visit, Dr Abdulhamid Gambo said, “We are in this state for an annual media field visit to community groups working with the Sasakawa African Association on agriculture and value chain.
The media team is here to meet with community groups to hear and see all our activities in terms of technical inputs and implement interventions and support.”
According to him, the association has collaborated with thousands of agricultural community-based organisations and groups since it started operations in Jigawa in 1992.
He noted, “Since then, we have been supporting both women and men groups in the rural areas. In these years of our interventions, thousands of community groups and associations have been supported and graduated in agriculture and value chain, and they are doing well, as you can see for yourselves.”
He added, “Presently, we are working with over 500 both men and women groups across the 27 local government areas in the state. And now we have also signed another $100,000 MoU with the Jigawa State Government for one year.”
Dr Gambo also emphasised the importance of their media field visits, saying, “a media field day is an activity we conduct annually to go around with media people to see what we are doing on the ground and to speak with the beneficiaries directly on their opinions regarding our interventions, progress, and challenges.”
He further revealed, “The Sakawa African Association is conducting such a field day annually in two selected states where we are working. This year, we selected Jigawa and Gombe states. We started here and will move to Gombe after Jigawa.”
The deputy country director highlighted the specific communities they visited, saying, “We are in Babuwawa, Sintilmawa, and Facewa communities in Birninkudu and Ringim local areas, where we provided a lot of interventions cutting across different components of the agriculture value chain and extension activities that the Sasakawa African Association is promoting.”
Dr Abdulhamid Gambo noted that the Sasakawa African Association (SAA) is an extension organisation promoting value chain extension in areas such as production, processing, value addition, and marketing while creating linkages for farmers at both input and output levels.
The Deputy Country Director highlighted the association’s significant impact through its interventions, stating that it has carried out numerous activities in all the communities where it operates in the state.
“The Sasakawa African Association is working in four states in Nigeria primarily, but by extension, we are working in more than 20 states under different other partnerships. The co-Sasakawa activities, which we call New Fund Funded Activities, are being implemented in Jigawa, Gombe, Nasarawa, and also Kano states,” he said.
Dr Gambo explained the focus of their visit, saying, “As I said, we are in this state to see what we are looking at today, which is: what did we do, and what did we achieve in the area of production? That is to say, to what extent has farmers’ productivity increased in terms of the number of trainings we have delivered to them? We trained them in different regional top agriculture technologies, which is the key pillar of intervention that Sasakawa is implementing in the states where we are working.”
He emphasised that the interventions delivered through these pillars have included many extension advisory services. “The idea is to source these technologies from where they are and take them to where they are required. That is why our partners are research institutes, universities, and the people themselves, whom we call co-creators,” he explained.
During the field visit to Babuwawa, Sintilmawa, and Facewa villages, Dr. Gambo expressed satisfaction with the progress and economic development in the communities. He noted that the project’s objectives were being achieved and commended the communities for quickly adopting the ideas, which have significantly transformed their social and economic well-being.
Speaking separately, the leaders of the visited communities expressed their gratitude to the association for its support and interventions. They stated that the program has positively impacted their lives by improving their sources of income through increased agricultural production and training in various trades and businesses.
They added that beyond individual capital, their groups and associations now have substantial cash reserves and agricultural products as assets, which are being invested to create and support more associations and groups within and beyond their villages.