Katsina hosts 4th Northern Nigeria agric. summit

From Lawal Sa’idu Funtua, Katsina

Katsina State yesterday hosted the 4th Northern Nigeria Agricultural Summit with deliberations focusing on making livestock viable for the socio-economic development of region and country in general.
The summit, which is a three-day event, has Northern Nigeria Livestock, Transformation Agenda, as theme of the programme.
Speaking, Governor Aminu Masari said 80 percent of the state’s population was into livestock production, which has made the sector a development priority for government.
Masari, however, said security was major challenge facing livestock production in the state, but that efforts were being made in collaboration with security agencies, to address the problem.
He also said that government’s intervention in the agricultural sector in the last four years had yielded fruit and that productivity had risen by as much as 40 percent within the same period.
He added that government plans to increase the productivity to 100 percent in the next four years, and that the effort was part of the Restoration Agenda of the All Progressive Congress-led (APC) administration.
On his part, the state Commissioner for Agriculture , Mannir Yakubu said the state has a livestock population of about 21 million, including cattle, sheep, goats and poultry.
Mannir, who doubles as the Deputy Governor of the state, said the state highlighted some of the efforts made to improve the agricultural sector.
He said government had procured and distrubuted153,360 metric tonnes of assorted fertilizers to farmers at subsidised rate of N5,000 per bag.
He said 29 weather stations had been established to support precision agriculture, and N150 million expended to support an irrigation project in Jibia council area.
He added that 150 tractors were procured and distributed for mechanization of agriculture, and 361 motorcycles bought for agriculture extension workers.
The commissioner expressed confidence that the summit would enable for inputs that would help improve the livestock development for the benefit of the state and country as a whole.