By Faridat Salifu
Jigawa State’s agricultural sector faces gaps in access to credit, extension services and irrigation, while more than a third of farming ⁰households experience severe food insecurity, according to a new government survey.
The findings are contained in four statistical reports unveiled by Governor Umar Namadi on Tuesday at the Banquet Hall of the Government House in Dutse, covering agriculture, formal and non-formal education, and the state’s economic performance.
The Agricultural Structure Survey covered 955,410 farming households, of which 943,563 engaged in crop production and 705,952 participated in livestock activities.
However, only 7.1 per cent of farming households had contact with agricultural extension services, while 3.9 per cent accessed credit and 1.9 per cent belonged to cooperatives.
The survey also found that 91.1 per cent of households did not keep farm records, while only 15.1 per cent adopted irrigation.
On food security, 25.2 per cent of households were fully food secure, while 34.3 per cent experienced severe food insecurity, highlighting challenges facing agricultural productivity and household access to food.
Namadi said the findings would guide government interventions to expand irrigation, improve access to agricultural finance, strengthen extension services, promote cooperative farming and support the transition to commercial agriculture.
The reports also identified challenges in the state’s education sector, particularly teacher shortages and conditions affecting learners in non-formal education.
The 2024/2025 Annual School Census recorded 1,320,770 pupils in public and private primary schools, including 752,921 girls, representing 57 per cent of enrolment.
Public primary schools accounted for 999,130 pupils, while public junior secondary schools recorded 214,166 students and senior secondary schools 137,795. The census also identified 167,975 children enrolled in one-year pre-primary education.
Although 84 per cent of public primary school teachers, 83 per cent of junior secondary teachers and 82 per cent of senior secondary teachers had the required qualifications, pupil-teacher ratios remained high at 96:1, 57:1 and 38:1, respectively.
Namadi said the figures reinforced the need to recruit and deploy more teachers. He cited ongoing recruitment and regularisation efforts, including the recent presentation of appointment letters to 2,020 teachers.
A separate Non-Formal Education Census, conducted across all 27 local government areas for the first time, identified 10,197 centres serving 1,116,289 learners in Islamiyya and Tsangaya schools, adult education and vocational skills programmes.
The survey found that 66 per cent of Almajiri learners depended on community support for daily meals. It also reported that 61.1 per cent of sleeping facilities required major repairs, while 3.5 per cent were considered unusable.
Women accounted for 71.1 per cent of adult education learners, while female trainees numbered 1,804 out of 2,462 participants in vocational and skills development programmes.
The governor said the findings would inform reforms to improve learner welfare, strengthen integrated Tsangaya education and expand adult literacy and vocational training. He also pointed to the establishment of the Tsangaya Education Board as part of the state’s response.
The fourth report, covering Jigawa’s gross domestic product from 2019 to 2025, showed that nominal GDP increased from ₦3.62 trillion in 2019 to ₦5.65 trillion in 2023. The report put the increase over the period at 35.92 per cent.
Namadi said the economic data would support investment promotion, diversification, job creation and long-term development planning.
He directed the state Bureau of Statistics to work with the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and relevant ministries, departments and agencies to incorporate the findings into sector performance reviews, medium-term strategies and budget preparation.
The governor also instructed public institutions to involve the Bureau in major data-gathering exercises, from survey design and collection to validation, analysis and publication, to reduce duplication and strengthen the reliability of official statistics.
He said the reports should guide practical government action, with their value ultimately reflected in improved schools, wider learning opportunities, more productive agriculture, economic growth and better public services.
