Buhari to Katsina elders: I’ll consider expansion of Zobe, Sabke dams

President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to look into the request of Katsina Elders for the expansion of existing irrigation schemes at Zobe and Sabke dams to enhance employment and profitability in agriculture.

President Buhari, in a meeting with Katsina State Elders Forum at the State House in Abuja on Thursday, said a situation in which 60 per cent of the state was productive in rain-fed agriculture for three to four months and idle for the rest of the year was unacceptable.

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He told the elders that he had charged his minister of agriculture to work with states to rediscover the lost grazing routes and reserves as a means to ending the frequent outbreak of violence between farmers and herders.

In a statement issued on Friday by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, Buhari said Nigerian farmers stood to reap the benefits of his government’s reforms as he continued to accord the highest priority to agriculture, describing it as the country’s largest employer of labour and engine of growth.

The leader of the delegation, Alhaji Aliyu Balarabe Saulawa, representing the chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi, Maradin Katsina, lauded the president for returning peace to most parts of the state and for the various infrastructure projects, including the Kano-Jigawa-Katsina-Maradi rail link.