As part of its ongoing strategic investment drive to
support Nigeria’s food production self-sufficiency and food security
aspirations, and its short to medium term value chain developmental efforts
aimed at raising the current local production levels of wheat in the country,
Crown Flour Mill (CFM) Limited, a leading flour milling business, has provided
farming irrigation equipment to some female wheat farmers in Kano state.
The irrigation equipment is meant to assist the
female smallholder wheat farmers and ultimately enhance their productivity
levels. The irrigation equipment comprising mainly of a high-pressure water pumping
machine, were formally presented to the female farmers at a ceremony held on
Monday, August 16, 2021 in Giyamusu, Ajingi LGA of the state.
The realization of the productivity potential of
women smallholder farmers in the country has largely been constrained by poor
access to land and farming tools, especially irrigation equipment. Access to
modern irrigation infrastructure on the farms boosts the yield of crops. Meanwhile,
wheat crops yield higher returns when properly irrigated. The presentation of
the pumping machines to the women smallholder farmers marked a needed upturn in
women farmers' aspiration to scale as well as support and meaningfully
contribute to the ongoing Federal Government agricultural development
programmes.
The recipients of the farming irrigation equipment
are Lauratu Kassim, a 40-year-old wheat farmer with three years wheat farming
experience, Maryam Ahmad, who has been practicing crop cultivation for many
years but went fully into wheat farming four years ago and Atika Shuaibu,
another 40-year-old female farmer who started wheat farming two years ago.
Shuaibu owns a very big farm where she plants rice and other crops and a wheat
farm, but has no pumping machine for irrigation. Hasiya Muhammad, who has had
to rely on her husband’s farming equipment to sustain operations on her
farmland, and 40-year-old Liti Audu are the other beneficiaries of the farming
infrastructure support.
Special guest at the presentation of the irrigation
equipment to the female farmers, the Executive Governor of Kano State, Alhaji
Umar Ganduje, ably represented by Hon. Faruk Sule Garo (Senior Special Adviser,
Youth Empowerment), appreciated and applauded the effort of CFM in empowering
women and investing in the agricultural sector which helps in ensuring the livelihood
of millions of Nigerians and in boosting the economy of our country.
Speaking about the intervention, Rauda Musa Umar,
Wheat Development Programme Officer, CFM, said the organisation is committed to
assisting the Government achieve its food security and economic diversification
agenda.
According to her, “We will keep providing the
necessary farming support and modern agronomic capacity-building training to
local wheat farmers to boost wheat farming practices and yields in the country.
Our focus, of course, is food security and improving livelihoods.”
Dr. Salim Saleh President Wheat Farmers Association
of Nigeria, said, “The various intervention programmes implemented by Crown
Flour Mill Limited are laudable. The presentation of these farming equipment to
our women will go a long way to boost the women farmers’ productivity and raise
the economic contribution levels of the women.”
“Let me seize this opportunity to encourage other corporate
organisations and well-meaning Nigerians, especially those operating in the agric
value chain, to emulate Crown Flour Mill Limited in developing and boldly
executing impactful agricultural development programmes that will reverberate
across the local landscape,” he added.
Atika Shuaibu, who spoke on behalf of the other
women smallholder farmers, expressed her appreciation for the delivery of the
irrigation facility.
She said, “I am so, so happy to receive the machine. With the irrigation machine, most of us will stop hiring pumping machines to water our crops. We will also have a bigger and better harvest. I thank Crown Flour Mill for this assistance.”
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