December 15, 2015, Updated December 10, 2015

Between 2016 and 2021, 100 participants per year will come to Israel from Kano, a state in northern Nigeria, to receive training in methods for successful desert farming.

The training stems from an agreement of cooperation signed in early December between the Galilee International Management Institute (GIMI) in Nahalal, northern Israel, and the government of Kano, the largest state in Nigeria.

The initial courses will take place at GIMI’s Study Center in Israel. The graduates will then return home to train farmers across Kano, which has a population of 15 million and is situated on the edge of the desert.

Israeli experts will go to Kano to continue training each cohort of graduates for a year in advanced methods of water management, desert agriculture and drip irrigation.

The agreement was signed by Kano Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and GIMI President Joseph Shevel in the presence of Kano government officials.

GIMI trains citizens of many African nations and has often hosted students from Nigeria since Israel and Nigeria began diplomatic relations in 1992. In 2011, Amnesty International paid for GIMI to retrain dozens of former anti-oil militants in the Niger Delta in agriculture, farm management and business skills.

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