It is no longer news that the problem of insecurity that is currently ravaging the nation is tied to the the twin problems of poverty and unemployment amongst able bodied men and women who are able and willing but can't find ready jobs.
Worried by the development, concerned stakeholders have urged relevant authorities to device ways to arrest the ugly trend before it degenerates into a major disaster that could
lead to a breakdown of law and order.
Stakeholders interviewed by this reporter to suggest that agriculture holds
the keys not only to the region’s efforts at sustainable development
but also to ensure peace and security that the Northern region and indeed Nigeria badly needs at this time.
According to them, there is a consensus of opinion that since the 1960s, the only source of economic power
in the northern region was agriculture which was the only prime source and the mainstay of the economy of the area.
However, they lamented that Agriculture in the North has witnessed arrested development as successive administrations in the various states making up the region have only been according lip service to the agricultural sector.
But they singled out the period of Engr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso's tour of duty as the Governor of Kano State as a glorious era which gave Agriculture and agribusiness a new fillip.
According to them, soon after Engr Kwankwaso mounted the saddle, he fashioned out his own unique template for the
development of the sector which many described as the Kwakwanso Agricultural Model, which if adopted by all the governors in the north would be the needed solution to the lingering social insecurity in the region.
They recalled that during his tenure as governor of Kano State, Kwankwaso transformed the age long subsistent method of farming into a viable entrepreneurial engagement through provision of formal training and incentives for start-up farmers as well as those already in the sector. It is to his credit that his government maintained the subsidized rate for inputs to farmers with a view to improving and increasing yield and output.
Kwakwanso also came up with series of novel and innovative ways of improving the agricultural value chain for higher grains.
He established training institutes to cater to the needs of farmers in diverse areas such as livestock,
horticultural and fisheries farming. These institutes made the
agricultural sector more attractive to the youths who hitherto viewed the sector as exclusively for the peasant adults. In the end, the agricultural sector served as a veritable means for ensuring gainful employment and wealth creation to thousands of youths who found fortune in the agricbusiness.
The former governor’s realistic approach to addressing issues in the sector helped in creating employment and wealth as it took away the minds of some ferocious youths from social vices as they could no longer be easily recruited for criminal activities by some
unscrupulous elements.
Kwankwaso model did not left women out, thousands of them were exposed to training in management of small agricultural efforts in ruminants at Bagauda Institute and procurement in post package training were given to them. Some of the beneficiaries of the scheme are today doing very well in both livestock and poultry business in the state.
To demonstrate the seriousness to which Kwankwaso government attaches to the sector, the former governor established Kano State
Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) alongside
another vital agency, Agricultural Programme Management Information System (APMIS).
These vital interventionist agencies are responsible for coordinating
the state’s agricultural growth and development to create wealth in the state which gave birth to similar others such as;
= Women Training in Small Ruminants
= Fisheries Institute, Bagauda.
= Vegetable Support Center, Bunkure
= Poultry Institute, Tukwui
= Kano Irrigation institutes, Kadawa
In conclusion, they said all the northern governments in the region could
borrow the Kwakwanso Agricultural Model, it will go a long way in
reducing the army of unemployment and poverty in the region thereby partly solving the already pathetic economic situation of the region.
0 Comments