Embrace Gardening For Food Security, Bauchi First Lady Urges Women

Wife of the Bauchi State Governor, Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed, has urged women and households to embrace home gardening as a sustainable means of improving family nutrition, reducing food expenses and enhancing food security.

Speaking with journalists in Bauchi after she inspected her farms, the First Lady said she deliberately invited members of the media to the farm to encourage more people to cultivate crops, irrespective of the size of land available to them.

She noted that home gardening was once a common practice among women in Northern Nigeria, with many families growing vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, okra, spinach and moringa within their compounds.

According to her, even small spaces around homes, particularly areas where water from domestic activities was discharged, were effectively utilised for vegetable cultivation, providing families with fresh produce for healthy meals throughout the year.

She regretted that the culture has gradually declined with many households now depending almost entirely on market purchases for their food needs, a development she said has contributed to the rising cost of living and increasing cases of malnutrition.

Aisha stressed that advances in smart agriculture have made farming easier, explaining that vegetables and other crops can now be cultivated in buckets, plastic containers and other small spaces without the need for extensive farmland.

The governor’s wife disclosed that her office has organised training programmes for women and schoolchildren on modern farming techniques, including the cultivation of crops such as ginger in confined spaces.

Aisha, however, expressed concern that many beneficiaries have yet to take full advantage of the opportunities provided through the training.

She encouraged women to apply the knowledge acquired to establish home gardens that would improve household nutrition, reduce food expenditure and support the health and wellbeing of their families.

The first lady also underscored the importance of planting moringa trees, describing them as highly nutritious and beneficial to family health.

She added that tree planting is regarded as a lasting act of charity because of its enduring benefits to humanity and the environment.