FG, Sasakawa Africa To Collaborate On Regenerative Agriculture

The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) restated its commitment to supporting the Federal Government of Nigeria’s drive to improve food and nutrition security, reduce poverty and hunger through regenerative agriculture on Thursday.

Dr. Godwin Atser, the new Nigeria Country Director of SAA, stated this during a courtesy visit to Malam Abdullahi Abubakar, the Director of the Federal Department of Agriculture in Abuja.

According to Atser, the purpose of the tour was to reinforce and expand the previously existing relationship with Nigeria.

“We are here to foster that relationship and build on it and strengthen it more and more.

“We are here to renew our commitment to the Federal Government of Nigeria that Sasakawa is here,” he said.

According to Atser, the SAA approach is in accordance with the Nigerian government’s aims.

“We are ready to work and support the efforts of the government in order to increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner.

“This is such that together we can help eradicate hunger and poverty and make our farmers proud,” he said.

The association’s strategy is regenerative agriculture, which is agriculture that is practiced in a way that does not harm or jeopardize the environment.

“We want to grow food in such a way that the land can be preserved and sustainable,” he said.

The association’s strategy is regenerative agriculture, which is agriculture that is practiced in a way that does not harm or jeopardize the environment.

“We want to grow food in such a way that the land can be preserved and sustainable,” he said.

Atser said that “nutrition sensitive agriculture” is also part of Sasakawa’s renewed strategy.

He stated that nutrition sensitive agriculture intended to ensure that crops provided to farmers have nutrition values that might help transform their health status.

“Market oriented agriculture is another pillar we are pushing, where we are making our famers to understand farming as a business.

“We also built a lot of capacity for our farmers and also for our extension agents. Building the capacity of farmers is key to what we do.

“Also we focus on inclusion. How do we bring on board youths, women and people living with disabilities? These are cross cutting issues that we are looking at,” Atser said.

In response, Abubakar expressed gratitude for the visit and expressed delight that the relationship between SAA and Nigeria has grown.

He emphasized his willingness to provide small-holder farmers the necessary startup kits so that they may grow into large-scale farmers.

Earlier, Prof. Sani Miko, former Country Director of Sasakawa, praised Abubakar for his support and ongoing cooperation with the association.

Miko asked him to provide the same support to Sasakawa’s new country Director.

The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) was registered as a not-for-profit international NGO in Geneva, Switzerland in 1986.

The focus of the association which was the initiative of the late Ryoichi Sasakawa, founder and former Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, is to seek a more sustainable solution to Africa’s food security problems

SAA’s approach has always focused on demonstrating the potential of improved agricultural technologies to extension agents and farmers through on-farm demonstration and training, from which extension agents and farmers could assess the technologies by themselves.