All is now set for the official commissioning of the training and research farm of Bayero University, Kano in the Centre for Dryland Agriculture, CDA, by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono.
Briefing newsmen in Kano on Tuesday, the Director of the centre, Prof. Jibrin M. Jibrin, said the CDA’s Africa Centre of Excellence Impact Project which won a $5m World Bank grant would also be launched same day.
According to Mr Jibrin, the farm is the first of its kind in any Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The director noted that the centre’s Africa Centre of Excellence ACE Impact Project won through a competitive grant of $5m from the World Bank would also be commissioned by the Minister.
He disclosed that under the new World Bank-supported project titled: Africa Centre of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact), the CDA would consolidate on its previous achievements and work with relevant sectoral key players to develop and mount training, research and outreach programmes that will make impact on livelihoods of the inhabitants of the dryland areas of West and Central Africa.
Mr Jibrin further explained that the CDA had planned to establish a Regional Innovation, Training and Entrepreneurship Accelerator, RITEA, in which the youth will be trained in modern intensive agriculture (both in-field and in protected environments) and in bio-resource entrepreneurship.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the CDA, which is an Africa Centre of Excellence in dryland agriculture, has enrolled 315 MSc and 84 PhD students from 11 countries of the West and Central Africa sub-region.
Its academic programmes have attained national and international accreditation.
