Sasakawa Global 2000 on Tuesday said it had introduced a special programme, from begging to bagging, for people living with disabilities to go into farming.
Mr Gambo Garko, SG 2000 Programme Officer, Farmer Based organisations, disclosed this to newsmen after inspecting one of the farms set up by the association of people living with disabilities at Gawo village, Tudun Wada Local Government area, Kano state.
Some officials of Sasakawa Global 2000 were in the area to assess the performance of farmers, who benefited from the organisation’s its intervention programmes.
He said that following the success of the programme in Nigeria, three other African countries, Uganda, Mali and Ethiopia had joined the programme.
He said the programme was introduced in 2015 to support people with special needs to go into farming business.
“SG 2000 initiated the programme in Nigeria for people with special needs to go into farming and stop them from street begging.
“This is the reason why we tagged the programme – from begging to bagging.”
Garko said the organisation would extend the programme to women since it proved to be successful among the physically challenged persons in the state.
The Chairman of the farmers’ group in the area, Malam Haladu Mohammed, commended the organisation for training them on new planting technology.
“Before now, we used to apply about 15 bags of fertilizer, but with the new planting technology, we now use 10 bags of fertilizer on same farm,” he said.
Another farmer in Dogon Kawo village, Malam Ahmed Musa, expressed happiness that the new technology had improved his yield.
“Last year, I got 25 bags of maize and I am expecting nothing less than 40 bags this year,” he said.
NAN reports that some of the farmers who spoke after the visit asked the organisation to provide them with loans to boost food production.
Earlier, Prof. Sani Ahmed-Miko, County Director of SG 2000, promised to send experts to train farmers on storage method to reduce wastage.
Sasakawa Global 2000 is an international non governmental organisation working in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, states ministries of agriculture and Agricultural Development programmes.
It is also working with National and international Agricultural Research Institutes, Agricultural Inputs Agencies and farmer organisations.
-NAN.
