A most heartwarming experience is commencing a well-planned project and concluding it most imaginatively, with a scoreboard showing that the target was exceeded in multiple ways. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I witnessed the launch of the Sasakawa Africa Association-Islamic Development Bank–Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (SAA-IsDB-KSADP) in Kano. On December 20, 2025, I was also among the key witnesses at the close-out workshop, which marked the project’s conclusion. Beneficiaries and other key stakeholders celebrated the project’s achievements in combating poverty and advancing food security across the 44 local government areas of Kano State.
The SAA-IsDB-KSADP model was not only a promising agricultural project but also demonstrated scalability, replicability, and sustainability. During the five years of its implementation, smallholder farmers and livestock herders received unprecedented support through capacity building in best agricultural practices, access to useful market and weather information, mechanization, and improved agro-inputs.
In my 2023 article on this model, I provided a sketchy mid-term review of the project and of how the SAA-Kano state’s progressive marriage of convenience was consummated when SAA arrived in Nigeria in 1992. Since then, Kano State has been at the forefront of Nigeria’s SAA interventions. The climax was SAA’s robust technical support in 2020, which enabled the state to secure financial support from the Islamic Development Bank and the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) to implement the multi-million-dollar Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP). KSADP was designed as a multifaceted strategy for food security, poverty alleviation, job creation, and conflict mitigation between farmers and herders. The project, aimed at developing livestock sustainably and crop value chains, will reach 450,000 smallholder farmers.
As the project’s technical partner, SAA delivered effective extension services by expanding access to inputs, adding value, developing agribusiness, and building farmers’ capacity in production, postharvest operations, and market access across the selected crop value chain. The crops and livestock were strategically chosen to address food and nutrition security. The crops include rice, maize, sorghum, and vegetables (tomato, cabbage, and onion). The crop component of the project rests on three pillars: regenerative agriculture, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and market-oriented agriculture. The project developed agro-pastoral livestock production systems that cover production, processing, and retailing.
It was a five-year period of rigorous knowledge acquisition, technology adoption and adaptation, backstopping, a dogged fight against poverty, increased resilience, and overwhelming capacity-building among agricultural value-chain actors and policymakers. The journey has paid off awesomely with tantalizing results. Our close-out workshop was a celebration that showcased the reward of five years of tireless efforts in the right direction. What are the key outcomes of the project?
Under the livestock support component of the project, in the first four years, 220 community animal health workers were trained and equipped with starter kits, and they vaccinated over 5,560,578 livestock, resulting in estimated cost savings of NGN 2.5 b. The vaccination was used to control disease outbreaks that would have cost more than 10 billion Naira. Additionally, an estimated 1,525.88 metric tons of beef and 2,147.20 metric tons of Mutton were produced, generating an estimated NGN 1.75 billion in gross revenue at the end of the 5th cycle of the project. A total of 5,170 Beneficiaries received 19,158 Goats for reproduction, which provided an estimated production of 1.249.63 mt of goat meat at the end of the 5th cycle. Again, 2,684 Beneficiaries received 8,072 Rams for fattening, with tens of thousands of indirect beneficiaries along the value chain.
The project completed the rehabilitation, equipping, and operationalization of the Kadawa Artificial Insemination Center. The Center was stocked with five purebred bulls for semen collection, capable of producing thousands of breeding bulls and cows. Similarly, an on-station trial was conducted on 20 local cattle breeds, achieving a success rate of over 80%. The project recovered 1,950 km of major and minor stock routes across the state. The routes were surveyed and demarcated to prevent further encroachment. The aim is to reduce farmer–herder conflict by providing pastoralists with smooth passage and access to grazing.
Under crop productivity enhancement, the project was abuzz with overwhelming success stories. The crops were rice, maize, sorghum, and vegetables (tomatoes, cabbage, and onions). The crop component of the project rests on three pillars: regenerative agriculture, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and market-oriented agriculture. All crop yields increased substantially, with yields more than 100% higher than those in traditional production. For example, rice productivity increased from 2.5 to 4.9 tons per hectare, whereas maize yield increased from 2.8 to 6.8 tons per hectare.
Generally, the project covered all value chain actors related to access to improved technologies, equipment support, and training. The provided supports include 98 tractors, 48 combine harvesters, 168 rice milling machines, 397 rice parboiling kits, 107 groundnut oil extraction units, 91 onion storage facilities, and 471 threshing enterprises, among others. Overall, the Project has directly impacted the lives of over 1.2 million beneficiaries across the crops and livestock value chains in the 44 local government areas of Kano State.
SAA is an international NGO headquartered in Japan. However, the personnel driving its enormous success in the KSADP project are all Nigerians working in Nigeria, fulfilling the cherished ideal of Nigeria’s unity in diversity. These individuals come from various parts of Nigeria and work harmoniously and diligently toward a common goal. KSADP was initiated under the leadership of the previous Country Director, Sani Miko, an insightful agronomy professor, who passed the baton to the current Country Director, the determined Dr. Godwin Atser, along with his deputy, the tireless Dr. Abdulhamid Gambo. These individuals provide strong support to the project team led by Ibrahim Mohammed, the project coordinator (KNARDA), and Abdulrashid Hamisu, co-project coordinator (SAA), who are positively impacting the lives of millions of residents in Kano State through project implementation.
In conclusion, the SAA-IsDB-KSADP Model has proven to be a laudable approach to food security in Nigeria and is adaptable and scalable nationwide. IsDB, its LLF, and SAA are veritable and potential supporters of achieving food security in Nigeria by replicating the KSADP model in any state of the federation. Here is low-hanging fruit for states and the federal government. The ball is in your court, governors and ministers of agriculture.
