Ramatu Garba – Kano
Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) Bayero University (BUK) Kano, has launched agri-hacking 2.0 and supported 22 communities with improved seeds to enhance food production.
The Vice Chancellor BUK, Prof Sagir Adamu-Abbas, disclosed this at the CDA third Open Day, on Thursday in Kano.
Represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics, Prof Sani Muhammad-Gumel, Adamu-Abbas said agri-hacking was a competion to support new innovators in agriculture for greater productivity.
“This initiative is not just a competition,
but a platform to nurture talent, drive sustainable solutions and create wealth
while addressing the critical environmental and socio-economic challenges faced by our dryland regions,” he said.
The VC urged students, youth and women to use the opportunity to show their talent, creativity and commitment towards making a difference in the field of agriculture.
On his part, the Director CDA, Prof Jibrin Mohammed-Jibrin, said the open day was an avenue for interaction between researchers and partners to create an opportunity for networking between the centre and partners.
“The programme gives us feed back as lecturers and teachers to see the main issues needed to be addressed and focus on”
Mohammed-Jibrin said the centre supported 22 adopted Communities working with the centre with variety of improved seeds to help address climate change among others.
“We will train them to become community seed producers and guide them to produce more seeds and at the end link them with seed companies to make more money.
“CDA was established in 2012 to improve livelihoods, resilience and sustainable use of natural resources in African dry lands through training and demand-driven research,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion witnessed exhibition of farm products from different farmers and other stakeholders such as Dala food Nigeria limited, IITA, ICRISAT and food way business service among others.
The 2024 open day had as its theme “Harvesting Knowledge, Nurturing Communities”.