By Abdullahi Yusuf
Kano State Government has employed measures to boost farmers’ morale for the 2026 cropping season across the state,the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources,Dr.Danjuma Mahmoud,has said.
It has been observed that farmers in the state are distressed by the current relatively low prices of foodstuff which make them unable to recover their production costs and break even.
A number of the affected growers, especially the large-scale farmers, have vowed not to till their lands during this year’s planting season for fear of incurring losses again,at the time of harvest.
Dr.Mahmoud,who disclosed the measures during an interview with Journalists in Kano on Monday,said part of the efforts was the purchase of fertilizers for distribution to farmers at subsidized rates.
“The State Government has purchased fertilizers and His Excellency, the Governor, as usual,is going to sell the fertilizers to the farmers at subsidized rates,so that they will be able to recover some of what they lost during the previous farming season,be it wet season or dry season,” he said.
He also disclosed that the State Government would launch a highly and massive agricultural farm implements programme to achieve a highly mechanized farming in the state.
To this end,the commissioner stated,the government alongside its partners,has established three major Agricultural Mechanization Centres at Gaya,Kadawa and Dambatta which he said,have such machines as combined harvesters, tractors,planters, transplanters, sprayers and thrashers.
He said the centres would be managed under a PPP arrangement and that the machines would be hired to farmers at discounted rates.
Dr. Danjuma then noted that some of the losses incurred by the farmers during the cropping season were caused by shortage of rainfall,and that the State Ministry for Agriculture and Natural Resources had embarked on a programme to educate farmers on the appropriate time to plant their crops.
He said that based on information received from NiMet,the ministry through its various channels,advised the farmers on the recommend timing for planting of their crops and fruits.