Kaduna’s agric. interventions second to none—Commissioner

Gov. Uba Sani has increased  funding, introduced new agricultural schemes  and has given more inputs to  farmers than any government in the history of Kaduna State.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Murtala Dabo disclosed this at the Quarterly Ministerial press briefing on Thursday in Kaduna.

He said that rhe Governor had not only increased the budgetary allocation to the sector but had distributed free fertilisers and farm implements to farmers as well as their cooperatives in the last two years.

Dabo further pointed out that the amount earmarked for agriculture in the  2025  budget was N74.2 billion.

The commissioner stated that the amount represented 9.36 per cent of the total budget.

Dabo added that 97.7 per cent of the agricultural sector’e budget was   earmarked  for  capital projects.

According to him, only 2.3 per cent was  allocated to recurrent expenditure, reflecting a strong emphasis on long-term, impactful investments.

The commissioner said out that only N1.48 billion was allocated to agriculture by the previous government in 2023, adding that the N74.2 billion allocated for this year was an exponential growth of 5,000 per cent.

Dabo said, ‘’Collectively, the budgetary allocations to agricultural activities in the  Ministries of  Environment, Education and  Human Services have pushed the allocation to agriculture to over  12 per cent of the 2025 budget

“This makes Kaduna State the only subnational to meet and exceed the 10 per cent Malabo Declaration benchmark.”

He  further said that the governor had distributed over 500 trucks of free fertiliser  to verified smallholder farmers under the Agricultural Input Supply Support,  the largest agricultural input support programme in Kaduna’s history.

‘Dabo said, ‘’Under the Tallafin Noma (A Koma Gona)’ initiative, 69,000 smallholder farmers were supported with quality maize seeds and agrochemicals during the rain-fed season.

‘’In addition, Kaduna State Government distributed  free agricultural implements and inputs to cooperatives.

“They, comprised  18 horse-power tillers,  18 horse-power  solar-powered irrigation pumping machines and 13 horse-power  solar-powered water irrigation machines.

“Others were gasoline-powered water irrigation pumps to the cooperatives to boost an all year-round farming.

‘’Each cooperative was also given 30 bags of Urea and NPK fertilisers, one motorised knapsack sprayers, one carton of herbicide and another carton of pesticide.”

The commissioner said that under the macro-mechanisation, the state had procured  a fleet of tractors  to enhance mechanisation.

He stated, “A new public-private partnership framework has been developed to operationalise these tractors via the revived mechanisation hubs.’’

According to him,  the scheme will be purely private sector-driven but the tractors  will be hired  to farmers at highly subsidised rates so that the model will be sustainable.

Dabo said that revenue accruing  from these private operators would be used to  acquire more tractors, vowing that  there would be a  penetration of the mechanisation to all the nooks and crannies of the state.

 He said that the sate was also developing the ‘Agricultural Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC)’ with the support of the Afrexim Bank, the first of its kind in Northern Nigeria.

The commissioner said that the  facility would complement the ‘Special Agricultural Processing Zone’, adding, “it will ensure that our agricultural produce meet both domestic and international quality standards.”

Dabo added that the centre would enhance Kaduna’s competitiveness in the global market, particularly under the AfCFTA framework.

‘’This means that our farmers and agro-industries will not only produce more but will produce better.

“They will meet the highest standards required for export and premium markets,’’ he added.