Gombe Govt lauds Sasakawa’s agric intervention; says organisation’s impact visible
The Gombe State Government has commended Sasakawa Africa Association’s (SAA) agricultural intervention to support smallholder farmers in the state as well as the government’s food security effort in the country.
Barrister Obel Yaji, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Gombe state gave the commendation on Thursday when a team of Sasakawa Africa Association paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
The Sasakawa team is in Gombe for its media field activities organised to showcase the activities of project implementation as well as to measure successes and impact made so far.
Yaji said the impact of Sasakawa in the agriculture sector in the state was huge and complements the government’s efforts towards ensuring that farmers were taken out of poverty while empowering women farmers to harness the agriculture value chain.
“What you (Sasakawa Africa Association) are doing to our farmers and particularly to Gombe state is impressive. Your activities are well known internationally and impact here in Gombe state is visibly seen and I believe that farmers would tell the media more success stories during today’s engagement.’’
He stated that given Sasakawa’s impressive activities, the state government would always be ready to partner with the organisation to boost food security and improve the wellbeing of farmers in the state.
On her part, the Programme Manager of the Gombe State Agricultural Development Programme, (GSADP), Abigail Fada said Sasakawa had been partnering with the ADP in the state for several decades, adding that Sasakawa had become a reliable partner that is delivering on its mandate.
Fada said there was no elaborate extension approach that ADP was using in the state that was not from Sasakawa, “so Sasakawa for us here in Gombe state is indispensable.’’
She stated that the agricultural value addition organisation’s efforts in Gombe state were helping to fast-track food available effort of government through its interventions in rural communities.
Earlier, Dr Abdulhamid Gambo while briefing the Barr Yaji of its media field event in Gombe State, the Deputy Country Director, Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), said the organisation had made a lot of success in the state.
Gambo stated that the successes recorded so far in the state would not have been possible without the support of the ministry, the GSADP and the state government.
He stated that Sasakawa in 2021 had shifted its strategic focus to work on three key areas that were hitherto not been given proper attention.
He listed them to include regenerative agriculture, nutrition-sensitive agriculture and market-oriented agriculture and in “all our interventions we try to mainstream these three key focus areas, that we do to implement them on our field level extension models which we are also implementing.’’
