Kano — The Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) has been urged to target more women and youth in its intervention programmes, Permanent Secretary, Kano State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Alhaji Muhammad Dankade Ibrahim, has said.

Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of the Kano State Commercial Agriculture Development Project, Ibrahim said targeting such groups has the potential of yielding positive results such as reducing unemployment and rural to urban migration.

He urged the World Bank assisted project to assist women in terms of dairy production by assisting them to have their own cows.

"CADP should look at gender issue in dairy value chain where cows are owned by males. It is necessary to mainstream women in dairy development intervention and assist them to access ownership of cows," he said.

He further appealed to the CADP to accelerate the implementation of the second batch of rural roads and energy so that many farmers would be motivated to cultivate more crops.

Earlier in his remark, the World Bank task team leader, Mr. Lucas Akapa, said they were in Kano to take stock of what was on ground in terms of implementation and also look for a way forward in terms of any challenge.

He said the project was ready to provide adequate equipment for rice processing, adding that it was part of the objective of the project.