Kano State agro-project targets 1.8m livestock for vaccination

Kano State Agro-pastoral Development Project, (KSADP), says 1.8 million cattle, goats and sheep will be vaccinated in this year’s annual livestock vaccination campaign in the state.

The State Project Coordinator, KSADP, Ibrahim Muhammad, said this at KSADP/SAA Media Field Day exercise in Kano state on Monday.

He said that the project was funded by the Islamic Development Bank and the Lives and Livelihood Funds, which aims to enhance livestock health and improve livelihoods of herders and livestock breeders.

“The project is determined to upscale the vaccination because livestock health is tied to the herders livelihoods and by extension our economy,” the Coordinator stressed.

According to him, KSADP has embarked on several projects like upgrading and equipping of Artificial Insemination Centers, construction of milk collection centers.

Others are; upgrade of cattle markets and crop residue utilization programme, among others, to improve the livelihood of the herders.

Earlier, the Project coordinator, KSADP-SASAKAWA Africa Association Nigeria, (SAA), Abdulrashid Kofar-Mata, said the programme was a five-year one which focuses on improving crop production and enhancing livestock productivity in the state.

“The Executing Agency of the programme is the Kano State Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA).

“The overall objective of KSADP is to contribute to reducing poverty and strengthening food and nutrition security in the state by developing agro pastoral production systems.

“SASAKAWA is a technical partner under the KSADP providing technical support to the government’s extension efforts of enhancing agricultural productivity and competitiveness through Increased access to inputs value addition extension services,” he said.

Kofar-Mata disclosed that the media field day was organized to showcase the activities of the project implementation in the last one year and to measure successes and impact made so far.

He explained that the event enabled the selected media outfits to interact with the beneficiaries on the field to share experiences.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi