byJigawa Research Institute’s Success Inspires Katsina’s Plan for State-Owned Agricultural Research Centre
By Ali Baba-Inuwa
The success recorded by the Jigawa Research Institute (JRI) in agricultural research, seed development and soil mapping has inspired Katsina State to consider establishing its own state-owned agricultural research centre, following a two-day study tour of the institute by a delegation from the Katsina State Ministry of Agriculture.The five-member delegation, led by the Katsina State Commissioner of Agriculture, Hon. Aliyu Lawan Zakari Shargalle, was mandated by the State Governor, Malam Umar Dikko Radda, to study the operations, facilities, research activities and development model of the institute.
Other members of the delegation included Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim Tsiga, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture; Alhaji Abubakar Dabo, Managing Director, KTARDA; Mansir Sulaiman, Director of Agricultural Services; and Samaila Sulaiman, Director of Planning, alongside other senior officials.
The delegation spent September 9 and 10 at JRI in Kazaure, visiting its research farms, laboratories and other facilities as it examined how the institute was established and how its research activities are connected to agricultural production.
Shargalle said the experience provided the delegation with a clearer understanding of the scale of investment in agricultural research in Jigawa, which he said could not easily be appreciated without visiting the institute.
“We have seen a lot of things and learned a lot of things,” the commissioner said.
He said the visit was undertaken to enable Katsina State to learn from JRI as it considers establishing what he described as the second state-owned agricultural research institute of its kind.
The commissioner said one of the first things that caught his attention was the institute’s work on seeds, particularly the production of basmati rice in Kazaure.
Shargalle, who said he eats basmati rice, explained that he had previously assumed that the crop was foreign and would remain so until he saw it being produced locally in Jigawa.
“My thinking was that basmati is foreign and it will remain a foreign rice. But coming to Jigawa, I have seen it by myself. I saw basmati rice that was produced locally here in Kazaure, in Jigawa State. This is a very good initiative,” he said.
The delegation also examined JRI’s seed multiplication activities, including maize production. Shargalle said the team observed the progression in production through seed multiplication, which he said demonstrated the value of research investment to farmers.
According to him, the institute’s work had shown how improved seed multiplication could contribute to increased agricultural production.
“So, our farmers need nothing but this investment,” he said.
But the commissioner said JRI’s soil-mapping activities made an even stronger impression on him because of their practical implications for farming.
He described the soil-mapping department as “the heart” of the research institute and linked its work to more informed decisions on fertiliser application.
Shargalle said Katsina had its own methods of verifying and applying fertiliser, but that the practices observed at JRI had given the state ideas it could adopt.
“But here, our coming to Jigawa, we have seen something that, Insha Allah, next year’s farming season, we are going to borrow a lot of things that we have seen. The fertiliser, even the soil mapping, we are going to do it,” he said.
He said the delegation would brief Governor Radda on its findings and seek approval for Katsina State to establish a partnership with JRI.
“We are going to brief His Excellency, our request for him to allow us to come and make a partnership with the Jigawa Research Institute, because in so many aspects we need to come. We need to do the partnership,” he said.
The Director-General of JRI, Dr. Suleiman Rufa’i Babura, said the Katsina delegation’s visit followed a directive from Governor Radda for officials of the Ministry of Agriculture to familiarise themselves with the institute’s operations and study its model.
He said the two-day programme gave the delegation access to JRI’s facilities, research farms and laboratories.
“We have taken them around our facilities, we have taken them around our research farms and also our laboratories. So, we have given them first-hand and first-class information, and also all that they require to know about establishing a research institute,” Babura said.
According to him, the delegation visited all six laboratories at the institute, where officials explained the activities being undertaken in each of the facilities.
Babura said the visitors were impressed by what they found, noting that their expectations had been exceeded.
“Alhamdulillah, they are so excited and they are so happy with what they have seen on the ground. As they have said, they didn’t expect to see this much, and they have seen more than what they were expecting,” he said.
The study tour therefore went beyond a routine institutional visit, providing the Katsina delegation with an opportunity to examine the facilities, research activities and development approach that underpin JRI’s work.
Shargalle said Katsina would return with documents, videos, the relevant law and other materials gathered during the visit to help the state assess how to establish its own research institution.
“We have seen it and we have got a lot, and we are going to collect a lot of things—both the documents, the videos, the law, in fact, a lot of things,” he said.
He also indicated that the relationship between the two institutions could extend beyond the study tour, with Katsina exploring areas of collaboration with JRI.
The commissioner praised Jigawa’s investment in agricultural research, describing the state as a leader in agriculture within the North-West and Northern Nigeria.
“Katsina State appreciates what Jigawa State has been doing because, in agriculture, Jigawa is leading our geopolitical zone and, in fact, is leading Northern Nigeria,” he said.
He said the delegation’s experience in Kazaure had convinced it that there was much to learn from the Jigawa model.
“We are going to copy a lot of things from you, and this is the first coming. You expect us—we are coming back,” Shargalle said.
He added that, after presenting the findings and materials from the visit to Governor Radda, he expected the Katsina governor to return to Jigawa.
“And DG, as I promised you, Insha Allah, what I have seen, I know my Governor, if I take the videos and the documents, I’m sure, Insha Allah, we are coming back together with him,” he said.
The visit has consequently placed JRI’s institutional experience at the centre of Katsina’s consideration of a state-owned agricultural research centre, while opening the possibility of further cooperation between the two neighbouring states in agricultural research and innovation.
