The Sa’l Anwar’l Ju’Mal Consultaire Limited (SCL) project Juriya is set to engage 72, 000 smallholder farmers in its 5-year project in regenerative agriculture in Adamawa state.

SCL with funding from MasterCard MasterCard foundation will be implementing regenerative agriculture or carbon farming in three selected states namely Adamawa, Kaduna, and Nasarawa states.

The CEO and Project Manager of SCL, Abiola Ebohen while speaking during the flag off of the project at the City Green hotel, Yola said that Adamawa state is selected for the project because of its land mass and its arable nature which is good for agriculture.

“We are looking for lands that are similar to SCL farms so that it will be very obvious to anyone looking on and see that there is a significant change with those who are part of the project and their neighbors. Because at the end of the day, what we are hoping to do is that for those who will adopt regenerative agriculture or carbon farming, they will be able to become ambassadors and pass the knowledge to their neighbors. So, the type of soil was very important to us and Kaduna, Adamawa and Nasarawa were already part of the database and the perfect place to start that journey,” Ebohen said.

She added that the project is flagging off with 24 field agents from the 21 local governments, and that each agent will train 200 smallholder farmers in their communities on carbon farming. “The beauty of this project is landscape management, what it does to the land has as long-term effect in so many areas. It has the social effect, it has the financial and economic effect, it has the climate effect and it has the community effect. And the approach of implementing is to build cohesion within the community. So, like we mentioned, this is Adamawa implementing for Adamawa. So, Adamawa field agents are going out to their communities to meet with 200 farmers within the community. And for the first year we are starting with 24 field agents within Adamawa and each agent will deal with 200 farmers that a total of 4800 farmers across the state.”

The Adamawa state commissioner of Agriculture, Dishi Kobe, who attended the event alongside other commissioners and top government officials appreciate SCL for considering Adamawa state to be part of the project.

“We are happy that SCL has considered Adamawa as one of the states that will benefit from this project. His excellency, the executive governor of the state is passionate about youth’s empowerment and promoting farming activities, and so I believe this has come at the right time. I would therefore wish to state here that the Adamawa state government will give this project the needed support to ensure it succeed and be of benefit to the people of the state and the nation at large,” Kobe said.

He noted that Adamawa State is majorly an agrarian state as 80 percent of the people engaged in agriculture consisting of livestock rearing and farming adding that the new system will enhance the nice product of the activity of farmers in the state.

The project champion and regenerative agriculture specialist, SCL project Juriya, Dr. Andrew Kwasari who led the technical session said the regenerative agriculture is going to be driven and owned by the people of the state.

He noted that already 24 field agents from the state have been trained for one month on effective carbon farming adding that each one of them is expected to also step down the knowledge of smallholder farmers in their localities.

He also noted that no fewer than 360 communities across the three states covering approximately 36,000 hectares will benefit from the exercise.

According to him, “regenerative agriculture or carbon farming which is a new farming technique is a form of agricultural practice encompassing Integrated Crop Tree Livestock (ICTL) adoption and implementation. The technique also excludes the use of chemicals on farms.

Some of the principles of carbon farming include sustainable land management, a plant combination, integrated pest control, sustainable water management, and livestock integration.”

Also speaking, a resource person and a Forester, Professor Ioryisa Verinumbe noted that carbon farming is currently the farming system that is of benefit to the people.

He expressed optimism that the people of Adamawa and other selected states will readily accept the practice because of the good results it will give especially looking at the multi-dimensional nature of carbon farming and the negative effect chemicals have on the soil.