By Fanen Ihyongo, Kano

Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, yesterday dismissed claims that Nigerian governors do not pay attention to the agricultural sector, assuring there are many agricultural programmes ongoing across states.

Ganduje made the observation during a live programme on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Good Morning Nigeria, on Thursday.

He argued: “I do not believe that governors are not paying attention to agriculture. You know the construction of roads and bridges, like similar projects, are projects that you can easily see.

“But agricultural programmes are being executed by farmers in mostly rural areas, such that most times even the media do not go there to physically see. And maybe, only those who are involved in such programmes can tell you what exactly is happening.”

The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, urged reporters to beam their searchlights on state governments’ efforts towards developing the sector.

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He lamented that information dissemination is limited and not enough when issues to do with agriculture are involved.

“There is the need, therefore, for media practitioners to revisit how agriculture is reported nationally. It is only, maybe through this, that one can come to appreciate state governors’ commitment to agriculture,” he said.

While believing that, there are certain issues in the sector that need to be resolved, Ganduje noted that with continued synergy between state farmers and federal government, many issues on agriculture could easily be resolved.

Disclosing how Kano made headway in the agriculture sector, the governor said: “We have stages for the agric development in the state. First and foremost, we started with the sensitisation of farmers regarding federal and state policies on agriculture; so also on problems of farmers on agric mechanisation.

“The issue of inputs is part of our major concerns and we discuss it with our farmers.

“Under the irrigation farming, we pay attention to mechanised farming. We understand that mechanisation is a gap existing in irrigation farming. Also under irrigation farming, we give much attention to the creation of concrete channels to farmlands. As we have 15,000 irrigation farms.

“Accessibility to farms is another important aspect that our state believes in. For this reason, therefore, we have already started access roads to those farms. It is known to all how we resuscitated our fertiliser plant, Kano Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO). Kano has enough fertiliser that we supply to other states,” Ganduje said.