Women farmers want loans from Sasakawa Global 2000

NAN-AE-9
Loans
By Tukur Muntari
Tudun Wada (Kano State), Aug. 14, 2017 (NAN) Women farmers in Tudun Wada local government area of Kano state have called on Sasakawa Global 2000 to support them with loans, to boost food production in the area.
Sasakawa Global 2000 is an International Non-Governmental Organisation working in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, State Ministries of Agriculture, Farmers Organisations and farmers.
Mrs Hannatu Danladi, leader of the women farmers, made the call when the Country Director, SG 2000, Prof Sani Ahmed-Miko, visited the maize demonstration farms in Dogon Kawo village in the Tudun Wada local government area on Monday.
She said the call was necessary in order to encourage more women to embrace farming in the area, to enhance their living standards.
“We need additional support in the form of fertilizer, seeds and chemicals, as well as other inputs,” the women farmers’ leader said.
Mrs Danladi said women farmers in the area had witnessed a lot of improvement in the production of maize since Sasakawa Global 2000 trained them on the adoption of the increase technology.
“We used to plant between two and three seeds but with the new planting method brought by Sasakawa Global 2000, we are now able to see the difference.
“The new planting method is one seed per hole, instead of two or three seeds per hole,’’ she said.
“We have also been trained to make a hole before putting the fertilizer,’’ Mrs Danladi added.
In her remarks, the SG 2000 Country Director, Prof Sani Ahmed-Miko, urged the women farmers to form cooperative societies, in order to enable them to be able to operate collectively.
He said the advice was necessary because no financial institution would deal with them individually, in view of the risks involved.
Ahmed-Miko, however, advised the women farmers not to rely solely on government support or assistance, as that could prevent them from being independent.
“There are about 12 million people in Kano state. So government cannot support all the seven million farmers in the state.” he said.
NAN reports that the team from the Sasakawa Global 2000 was in the local government to assess the performance of farmers benefiting from its intervention. (NAN)
MTM/PIO
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(Edited by Idonije Obakhedo)