Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), in partnership with AFEX and other organisations, has trained maize and soybean farmers along with Community-Based Agents (CBAs) on financial literacy, contract farming, and digital literacy to strengthen food security.
The training was organised under the project “Enhancing the Productivity and Competitiveness of Smallholder Farmers in the Maize-Soybean Farming System in Nigeria,” funded by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
Mukhtar Ibrahim, Project Desk Officer for the Maize and Soybeans Consortium, AGRA Kaduna State, disclosed this at the end of the training in Zaria on Sunday.
Ibrahim said the programme was designed to prepare CBAs and leaders of farmers’ cooperatives for the 2026 farming season, as many farmers had already begun land preparation.
He said participants were trained on improved agronomic practices, demonstration farm establishment, group dynamics, leadership skills, as well as digital and financial literacy.
“Digital and financial literacy featured prominently because farmers now receive weather forecasts and advisory services through mobile phones,” he said.
“The training will prepare farmers, especially women and youths, to use digital tools to improve productivity.”
Ibrahim described the programme as a training-of-trainers initiative and urged participants to cascade the knowledge to other farmers in their communities.
He noted that AGRA is currently working with 100,000 farmers across Kaduna and Niger states in the first phase of the project. Participants at the training were drawn from six LGAs in Kaduna State: Lere, Chikun, Ikara, Soba, Zaria, and Igabi.
The project aims to address challenges faced by smallholder farmers, including weak group coordination, poor record-keeping, low financial literacy, and limited understanding of contract farming.
Ms Hilda Garba, Project Manager and Communication for Development Expert at AFEX Investment Limited, presented a paper on financial literacy, emphasising better fund management, budgeting, and saving.
She assured that AFEX would sustain the financial literacy initiative and provide aggregation and market uptake for the farmers’ produce.
Mrs Hauwa Makama, a CBA from Chikun LGA, and Mrs Amina Hassan-Shuaibu from Soba LGA, both said the training exposed them to modern agronomic practices, funding opportunities, and improved farm inputs, which would boost productivity and farmers’ incomes.
The three-year project, scheduled to run from September 2025 to March 2028, targets 100,000 smallholder maize and soybean farmers in Kaduna and Niger states.
