ADAS-P Organises One Day Workshop for Strategy Formulation & Stakeholder Engagement on Aquaculture
By Abdulaziz Abubakar Damare
The Adamawa State Agribusiness Support Programme ADAS-P has has organised a one day workshop on developing aquaculture sub sector in Adamawa state and also inaugurated a "Technical Committee for the Development of Aquaculture Business Strategy in the state"
The theme of the workshop is developing aquaculture sub sector: strategy formulation & stakeholder engagement.
Declaring the workshop open, the Hon. Commissioner Ministry for Livestock and Aquaculture Alh. Tijjani Atiku Maksha who commended Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri for introducing first Agriculture bond programme in Nigeria, challenged all stakeholders to play their part in ensuring the success of the programme.
Maksha hails ADAS-P for organising the workshop and engaging stakeholders to improve aquaculture in Adamawa which can help to boost the economy of the state.
In his presentation, the lead Consultant Afrique HUB Network Mr. Olalekan Adeleke, said Adamawa is endowed with Fisheries Potential which if properly harnessed can improve the economy of the state and Adamawa can supply fish not for only the state but many states of country.
The Consultant outlined limited structure & access to finance, inadequate technical expertise, climate change impact, reliance on importation as well as water quality and availability as some of the major challenges bedeviling the sector in the state.
Olalekan explained that implementation of aquaculture business development strategies, promotion of commercially viable fish species, integration of small holder producers to supply chain and esterblishment of productive business linkages as solutions to the problems.
In an overview of the Adamawa state aquaculture market strategies, a Rtd. University Don who specializes on aquaculture Dr. Aminu Raji who commended ADAS Programme for organising the workshop and wonderful jobs in improving the sector, appealed for the state government to revisit and update laws governing aquaculture for proper upgrade in the state.
Earlier in a keynote address, the Lead Consultant and Chief Operating Officer of ADAS Programme Alh. Yunusa Ibrahim Gafai hails Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri's foresight in introducing ADAS-P in Adamawa and restated their commitment to justify the confidence reposed in them.
Gafai said ADAS-P has 8 major intervention pillars that includes improving access to market, finance and internally generated revenue IGR, inter-coordinnation, Clustering farmers and promotion of rural institutions and community development associations among others.
The lead Consultant said ADAS Programme is not directly dealing with beneficiaries but rather through collaboration and facilitation (3rd party).
Some of the inaugurated committee members includes Raynold Nuhu (Director Fisheries, Ministry of Livestock and Aquaculture Development) as Chairman while Emmanuel Bitrus serves as the Secretary.
Others are Dr. Markus Danbaki, Linus Baka, Dr. Aminu Raji, Dr. Musa Mohammed among others.
ADAS Programme is a public private partnership Programme initiative by the Adamawa State Government under the Ahmadu Umaru Fintiris led administration to build a competitive, profitable and sustainable agriculture in Adamawa state that empowers all actors within the agriculture eco-system to prosper.
The mission of the programme is to promote smallholder commercialisation by fostering productive business linkages between smallholder farmers and selected agribusiness firms, access to markets, infrastructure, market structure and information asymmetry.