SOKOTO – The Sokoto State Government has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to food sufficiency through strategic investments in agriculture, including the reconstruction of the long-abandoned Kware irrigation scheme and the procurement of 250 tractors, the Commissioner for Agriculture has said.
Hon. Tukur Alkali, the Commissioner, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Sokoto. He noted that Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s administration had also completed the Kware irrigation project, which has the potential to engage thousands of youths positively.
According to Alkali, over 90 per cent of Sokoto’s populace is engaged in animal husbandry or crop farming. “Sokoto, as you all know, is the largest producer of onion in Nigeria and even in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
With agriculture at the top of his nine-point Smart Agenda, Governor Aliyu, upon assuming office, declared 100 per cent support for the ministry. The commissioner alleged that agriculture had been largely abandoned by the immediate past administration of Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. The governor subsequently reviewed the agricultural blueprint of his mentor, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, resolving not only to restore the sector’s glory but also to modernise it lucratively.
The governor ordered the purchase of 250 tractors to boost the sector. Recognising the state’s long dry season, he also listed abandoned irrigation projects for completion to enable year-round farming. A contract was immediately awarded for the Kware Irrigation Scheme, which spans approximately 450 hectares.
Within his first 100 days in office, Governor Aliyu invited Vice-President Kashim Shettima to flag off the distribution of food items worth over N5 billion to the less privileged. This was followed by the free distribution of 66 truckloads of fertilisers (including urea and NKP), insecticides, herbicides and other farm inputs for the 2024 dry season farming, after donating food items worth over N1 billion to persons internally displaced by insecurity.
In 2024, the government employed 200 veterinary doctors to improve livestock development. This complemented the purchase of fertilisers and agrochemicals worth over N5 billion in 2025, which were resold to farmers at a highly subsidised rate – a 40 per cent discount.
The commissioner further revealed that the governor recently awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the over-200-year-old Lungu dam project in Wurno Local Government Area. Additionally, as Sokoto is the nation’s largest onion producer, the state entered a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) in 2025 and flagged off the construction of a cold onion storage facility to ensure stable availability and reduce post-harvest losses. This is in addition to training and engaging more extension workers to sensitise farmers on new farming methods, weather study and fertiliser usage.
Alkali added that Governor Aliyu consistently matches words with action, as evidenced in the 2026 budget, which made substantial allocations for the rehabilitation of at least two to three abandoned irrigation schemes in selected villages across the state’s three senatorial districts.
