From Mustapha Adamu, Kano
The Agro Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support – APPEALS Project in Kano state has signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOAA) with AFEX for project impacts sustainability.
AFEX is a commodity exchange company that provides solutions in trading, financing and market system development.
Speaking during a tour to the facilities provided by APPEALS to its beneficiaries in Darki, Wudil Local Government and Balare in Ajingi Local Government areas of the state on Saturday, the Kano APPEALS Coordinator, Hassan Ibrahim said the collaboration would be of great benefit to the farmers.
According to him, the visit was to sensitize the farmers on the linkage with AFEX, a company ready to uptake all the agricultural products they produced under APPEALS project, which runs on three value chain of rice, tomato and wheat.
He added that apart from agreement with AFEX as what he described as “automatic and reliable market” for the farmers, Ibrahim also disclosed that the state government, under APPEALS, had constructed 9 aggregation centres at different locations across the state and constructed access roads that link the fans with the markets.
The Coordinator explained that the aggregation centre would serve as agricultural products’ collection centre where the AFEX would be supplied with the needed commodities and buy at reasonable prices.
He added that the centres are equiped with moisture testing equipment, weighing balancing, among others, aimed at adding value to the agricultural products.
“This would promote export and create automatic market with an ultimate livelihood improvement through increase in income of our farmers. This is the target of the Kano state Government
“The rationale behind collaboration with AFEX is to create automatic and reliable market where the farmers would sell their agricultural products without hinderence, aimed at increasing their livelihood.
“Our today’s visit is a usual visit which the Kano state Government, under this projecd, intends to ensure sustainable agricultural development through agricultural business linkages.
“You can see with yourself, under this project, we have constructed about 2.9 km road to link the farmers’ farms with the market. The state government, through this project has also constructed an aggregation centre, equiped with moisture tester, weighing balancing, among others, to ensure that value is added on their agricultural products.
Today we have to interact with them; to hear from them and the the impact of the facilities provided for them,” Ibrahim explained.
On his part, Kassim Abdulsalam, Sales Operation Manager, AFEX in Kano and Jigawa, said the company engages in agricultural trading and supporting farmers with farm inputs, such as fartilizer, seeds and crop protection chemicals.
He said the purpose of the collaboration with APPEALS is to aid in sustaining the project by empowering the farmers and boosting their production within the areas of operation of the project.
“We want to help the farmers by providing inputs to the farmers and buying their yields with a better rate, aimed at improving their socioeconomic status.
All the beneficiaries present had commended the APPEALS project for improving their production through provision of facilities and mechanization, adding that the project had indeed boosted and simplify their farming.
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