Beneficiaries of the input support under the World Bank’s Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus programme (CARES) said the intervention would boost agricultural productivity.

The farmers stated this during project inspection by the CARES-project officials in some local government areas. On Monday, the local governments visited to assess achievements were Rano, Madobi, Bunkure, Gezawa, Minjibir and Kura. 

The project coordinator, Rufa’i Halilu, said the Kano CARES project spent about N300 million on farm input support components alone. He noted that the amount was expended on providing the beneficiaries with solar-powered water pumping machines, power tillers, planters, fertilisers, insecticides, herbicides, sprayers, and improved seeds, among others.

Mr Halilu explained that the input assistance benefited 980 poor farmers across the state. 

Jamila Garba, one of the beneficiaries of the Rano local government, lauded the programme.

“They made farming easy and possible for us this time around because, if not because of this intervention, many of us will not plant crops due high cost of fertilizers,” she said.

Yunusa Usman, another beneficiary in the Kura council area, commended the project and the state government for choosing them among the beneficiaries of the support.

Mr Usman said it would go a long way to encourage them to increase Kano’s agricultural productivity.

On his part, Abdullahi Umar, a beneficiary in the Madobi area, thanked Kano-CARES for giving them improved seeds and other inputs to enhance agricultural productivity.

Mr Umar said that such kinds of support were timely as farmers faced challenges of the high cost of fertilisers and other farm inputs. He urged the Kano CARES project to widen the programme’s scope to enable more farmers to benefit from the gesture.

The beneficiaries from other local government areas also thanked the project for the intervention, which they said, had started yielding positive results of improved productivity.

“As a result of the intervention, we are now predicting a bumper harvest. We really thank the CARES project for the support,” he said.

Similarly, Mai-Unguwa Yahuza, the village head of Jigore in the Minjibir local government area, praised the project for rural road rehabilitation, which he said, assisted immensely in linking up many communities.

Mr Yahuza further added that it made transportation of people, goods and farm produce from one place to another easy.

(NAN)