The Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP) under the crops project value chain development handled by Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) has trained and empowered 20 Commodity Association Traders/Trainers (CATs) drawn from 20 LGAs of the state on market information sourcing, aggregation and dissemination using ICT tools.
Speaking to the participants during a three-day training session, KSADP Coordinator in SAA, Comrade Abdulrasheed Kofar Mata, revealed that the whole project was aimed at promoting inclusive economic growth in the state which targeted the most vulnerable, including women and youths, with a view of promoting an increased agricultural production, as well as commercialisation.
According to him, the project, funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and a grant component from Live and Livelihood Funds (LLF), will extend the establishment of CATs in all the 44 LGAs of the state.
He added that the training and empowerment of the selected CATs was designed in such a way that all the trainees would receive a tablet gadget and would be placed on allowances for easy and effective dissemination of information as required, noting that already the project had been working with initially trained CATs in addition to newly selected ones.
A CAT, Yahaya Kura from Kura LGA, who spoke on behalf of the trainees, said the establishment of CATs would surely change the narratives in crop value chain development in the state, adding that the idea was a well-calculated attempt in processes that would yield the needed results in agricultural development in the state.
