The Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA), Bayero University, Kano, Kano State, has outlined its commitment to address the challenges bedeviling dryland agriculture in Africa as it affect food production and security.
The CDA Director, Professor Jibrin Mohammad, disclosed this during the second annual open day celebration of the center, organized to showcase its modest innovation and technical breakthroughs over the years.
Bayero University, Kano (BUK) established CDA in 2012 as part of its effort towards addressing the development challenges of the dryland area and has since become a World Bank-supported Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) to serve as a regional training hub for the West and Central Africa (WCA) sub-region.
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The center runs MSc and PhD programs in Agronomy (Dryland Crops and Cropping Systems), and other related courses, as well as specialized short courses domiciled in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, to impart specific skills that address the practical needs of career professionals and sectorial stakeholders.
The director noted that CDA has excelled significantly in the areas of knowledge transfer and research development, adding that the center does not relent in its focus on training and research to build capacity for dryland production.
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He boasted that the center’s commitment to dryland production has attracted resources and funding from the World Bank and the French Agency for Development (AGD), in addition to a formidable network of partnerships with international and regional institutions with common interests.
According to him, CDA has trained over 530 PhD and MSc students, the majority of whom were drawn from 15 African countries, adding that the center plans to establish a regional innovation, training, and entrepreneurship hub where youths will be trained in modern intensive agriculture and bio-resource entrepreneurship.
