18th July, 2017
Katsina State Government said on Tuesday that it had earmarked N400 million for the rehabilitation of three dams that would be used for dry season farming.
The three dams located at Daberam, Ruwan-sanyi and Masari areas, have reached 80 per cent completion.
The Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mannir Yakubu, disclosed this during the opening ceremony of a skill acquisition training for Fadama graduates and unemployed youths in Katsina.
The programme was organised by the National Fadama Coordinating Office, Abuja, in collaboration with Katsina State Fadama III Additional Finance Office.
Yakubu noted that agriculture on the Restoration Agenda of the state government.
“We have given agricultural rejuvenation and revamping high priority through well-articulated policies and programmes.
“We have systematically introduced mechanisation to boost production and the government will soon release 40 tractors to farmers under the banner of Tractors Owners Association (TOAN).
“The state government is targeting the release another 325 tractors, 1,000 hand pull tillers and assorted irrigation kits for farmers in the state.”
The deputy governor said that the Katsina Government was ready to release its counterpart funds to the National Fadama III Programme.
He urged the selected 290 youths to concentrate and learn all the skills in order to be able to establish agriculture-based businesses.
In his remarks, the representative of National Fadama III Programme, Alhaji Kabir Safana, said that 6,900 unemployed graduates had been selected from 23 states to participate in the programme.
READ: Good soil temperature key to housing stability – NiMet
Safana said that over 500 unemployed graduates applied to participate in the programme from Katsina State and 290 were selected.
He said after the 14-day training, the youths would be assisted with soft loans to execute their business plans.
In his remark, Dr Abba Abdullahi, the Special Adviser to Gov. Aminu Masari on Agricultural Development, urged the youths to remain focused during the programme.
“I am calling on the participants to embrace farming as a business because it is a well-known fact that agriculture is the most scientific alternative source of revenue as oil is proving to be both erratic and undependable.”
Abdullahi said that the Katsina Government had embarked on expansion and rehabilitation of irrigation schemes/dams and some selected irrigation sites, to boost food production in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government, in collaboration with state governments, have been introducing different programmes in order to reduce graduate unemployment in the country.