The federal government on Saturday inaugurated a mini milk collection centre in Tassa Village in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area of Kano State.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Agriculture, Sabo Nanono, said that the centre would alleviate the plight of milk sellers and improve their business.
Mr Nanono said that the government would establish additional centres in other states of the federation in order to further improve the economic wellbeing of the people.
“Additional collection centres would be established in Gujungu and Ringim is Jigawa so as to get fresh and hygienic milk,” he said.
He further said that the federal government would establish Fulani settlements in order to settle the herdsmen in one place to eliminate herders/farmers clashes.
He said that the measure would also help to improve the business and economic life of the herders in the area.
The minister called on Fulanis in the state and other parts of the country to live in peace with farmers and other people in their host communities.
”I recently visited Bauchi and Gombe states on the issue and the government is committed to the project,” he said.
Meanwhile, the minister who also visited Gezawa Commodity Exchange Market identified the provision of Quarantine and Produce Inspectors as one of the major problems facing the export market.
“We have a situation where exportable commodities cannot be exported because of adulteration and misuse of fertiliser.
”We are thinking of having a Quarantine in Dawanau International Grains Market, the biggest grain market in African because about 75 per cent of export, commodities pass through the market.
“The quarantine will help us to overcome some of the problems and it will help in ensuring that standards are met in the market for export of our commodities so that we avert this kind of problem affecting our operations and export,” he said.
In the area of extension workers, Mr Nanono said that there were only 14,000 agricultural extension service workers that attend to the needs of the huge number of farmers across the country.
He described the number as grossly inadequate to provide the necessary extension services support to no fewer than 70 million farmers in the country.
He said that the lack of adequate extension workers was one of the challenges bedevilling the nation’s agricultural sector.
The coordinator of the market, Bichang Binfa, said that the market had 432 shops and only two mega warehouses.
Mr Binfa said that the market would create direct job opportunity for 1,500 people and 20,000 indirect jobs.
He said that they employed at least 50 graduates of Agriculture for extension
services.
He also said that they developed over 3,000 cooperatives for no fewer than 80,000 farmers in the state.
He, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to provide additional warehouses, silos, tractors and machines, among other facilities, in the market to enhance their business.
(NAN)
