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 the KSADP/SAA Media Field Day exercise in Kano on Monday.
He said that the project was funded by the Islamic Development Bank and the Lives and Livelihood Funds, which aim to enhance livestock health and improve the 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 the upgrading and equipping of artificial insemination centers and the construction of milk collection centers.
Others are the upgrade of cattle markets and crop residue utilization programmed, among others, to improve the livelihood of the herders.
Earlier, the project coordinator, KSADP-SASAKAWA Africa Association Nigeria (SAA), Abdulrashid Kofar-Mata, said the program was a five-year one that focuses on improving crop production and enhancing livestock productivity in the state.
“The executing agency of the program 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 to enhance agricultural productivity and competitiveness through increased access to inputs and value-added 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 year and to measure the 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.