Farmers under the auspices of Zazzau United Farmers Association have lauded the Agro-processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Support Project (APPEAL) – an initiative formed to support and boost food security in the country.
The farmers said the project’s support has helped them not only to improve their yields but added the commercial value of their produce.
Speaking at one day ‘Brown Field Day for Maize Value Chain’ organized by the Project (APPEALS) held at Yaskwake village, farmers grouped into six clusters in the Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna state, praised the organizers for assisting them with improved maize seed, fertilizer and pesticides, among other inputs.
A farmer from the Boys cluster, Alhaji Adamu Aliyu Shika, said they had already started to reap double yields in the last harvest season, saying the support by the group was unquantifiable.
Alhaji Shika said before the support they were harvesting between 20 and 25 bags of maize per hectare of land but now they were harvesting between 35 and 40 bags of maize in an hectare of land.
Early, the Katsina state Coordinator of the project, Dr Yahaya Aminu, had commended the farmers for their judicious use of the inputs, stressing that it enabled the bumper harvest recorded during the ongoing harvest season.
