The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) has extended farm mechanisation support to smallholder farmers across Kano State, distributing 98 tractors, 410 threshers and targeting 3,500 solar-powered pumps under the Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP).
Speaking during the flag-off ceremony at one of the project’s storage facilities in Kano, SAA Project Coordinator, Hamisu Kofar-Mata, said the distribution formed part of the association’s annual media field day, expanded under KSADP to showcase results and deepen engagement with farming communities.
Kofar-Mata, said the organisation has scaled up its annual farm implement distribution in the last two years to strengthen agricultural productivity in all 44 local government areas.
He disclosed that out of the 98 tractors procured, 10 had already been commissioned, eight were presented for distribution during the field day, while 80 others are stationed across mechanisation centres in the three senatorial zones for deployment, noting that each tractor comes with complete implements, including trailers, ploughs and harrows.
Kofar-Mata also added that the 410 threshers—160 multi-crop, 150 maize and 100 rice threshers, sprayers, planters, silos and harvesters were provided to support processing, reduce post-harvest losses and improve livelihoods.
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He added that the project is further deploying solar-powered irrigation pumps, with a cumulative target of 3,500 units to reduce dry-season production costs, alongside 19 modular rice milling machines with multi-stage processing capacity given to farmer groups.
The state KSADP Project Coordinator, Ibrahim Garba, said the wide-ranging agricultural interventions are jointly funded by the Islamic Development Bank, the Lives and Livelihood Fund and the Kano State government.
He highlighted complementary investments, including 100 milk collection centres, 20 slaughterhouses, a social grazing reserve, irrigation development in Watari and Kabo and about N9.9 billion rural road construction.
Garba said a much larger mega distribution exercise, expected to benefit over 1.5 million residents, would soon be launched by the state governor.
While noting that the items are given for free, he further warned beneficiaries against selling the equipment, stressing that monitoring teams would track utilisation.
Farmers who received the equipment expressed appreciation, saying the intervention would ease production costs, strengthen value-chain activities, and increase yields across their communities.
