Governor Dikko Radda of Katsina State
Abuja, Nigeria — Despite soaring food prices and rising economic hardship across the country, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State has declared that Nigeria has no justifiable reason to be hungry, citing untapped agricultural potential and massive state-level investments in food production.
Governor Radda made the assertion during a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF), Mohammed Ibrahim, in Abuja on Tuesday. During the meeting, he emphasized the need for deeper partnerships between federal agencies and subnational governments to harness Nigeria’s agricultural strengths.
“We have no reason to be hungry or poor if we truly harvest our agricultural potential. Food sufficiency is within reach,” Radda said.
He described agriculture as the “backbone of development” and reiterated that the sector remains the largest employer of labor—especially in Katsina, where 90 percent of the population is involved in farming and agro-based enterprises.
Major Investments in Mechanization and Fertilizer
Governor Radda revealed that the state government has taken concrete steps to transform its agricultural sector, including the imminent commissioning of agricultural mechanization centers in all 34 local government areas.
These centers will be equipped with more than 400 tractors, combined harvesters, and over 1,000 planters, accompanied by full implement kits—plows, trailers, ridgers, and harrows—to reduce manual labor and increase yield.
Additionally, Katsina has spent over ₦21 billion in 2024 alone on procuring over 400,000 bags of fertilizer distributed across all polling units in the state. The government has also established an Agricultural Development Programme Unit and an Irrigation Authority to coordinate these efforts.
Sabke Dam: A Pilot for Year-Round Farming
On the sidelines of the visit, Governor Radda also disclosed that the state is working to complete the Sabke Dam project, a long-underutilized infrastructure expected to irrigate over 1,200 hectares of farmland.
The Sabke Dam is now being positioned as a pilot initiative under the Renewable Infrastructure Funds, aimed at enabling all-year-round farming, boosting food production, and creating jobs. The governor emphasized that lessons from the pilot will be used to replicate the model across the country in collaboration with NADF and other federal partners.
“This is not just about food security—it’s about economic transformation,” Radda noted. “With these investments and the right collaborations, Nigeria can move from food dependency to self-sufficiency.”
Governor Radda’s remarks and initiatives come amid growing concerns over food inflation and poverty, underscoring a bold push by subnational actors to recalibrate Nigeria’s agricultural future through mechanization, irrigation, and strategic partnerships.
