A Bauchi-based NGO, The Kairos Initiative, has commenced training of 45 women from the Birshi-Gandu community of Bauchi LGA on backyard sack farming.
The aim of the training according to the executive director of the NGO, Dr Moji Iheme is to complement government’s efforts on food security and availability in the country.
According to her, “The Inauguration of the Project Sustenance: is Curbing Food Insecurity with Backyard Sack Farming, particularly among women who are mostly worst hit in terms of food shortage.”
Moji Iheme stressed, “We want to curb food insecurity because when the Women can grow crops in sacks behind their houses with the things they have readily available, it reduces food insecurity, and they can farm without having to travel to farm settlements, especially with attacks by bandits and other insecurity situations.”
According to her, “They can just plant it right there behind their houses. We chose women because they are the most vulnerable, like in Birshi-Gandau, it is a peri-urban community and women are always at home and these sacks farming, it is women that will come and see that it needs watering, it is women that will take care while the men sit at the front of the house most times.”
The ED added,”But it is inside the house. We don’t want to have it on farmland, just around the house, behind the kitchens. Most of the women we have as beneficiaries are not all working; some are retired, some are petty traders, so they have the time.”
She explained, “Generally, we are training them in farming, but we are specifically training them on crops that are healthy for the body because we are nutrition-minded. There are a lot of vegetables like Circa leaves, very nutritious vegetables that increase blood supply in the body. Also, potatoes that look like carrots have a higher nutritional value, especially for children as pap.”
Moji Iheme further stated that, “We also have tomatoes, cucumber, pepper that women go to buy in the market all the time including onions, these are the ones we are starting with.”
She, however, said that the first phase of the training is for 6 months, hoping that the crops the Women are planting first they will be able to harvest because “we are buying highbreed seeds from a very well-known agricultural company.”
“So, when they plant this first one, the cucumber, in 40 days they will be able to harvest, all things been equal. They will then plant another, we are hoping that they will continue harvesting and continue to plant,” She added.
According to her, “We are also teaching them to plant seedlings, to raise seedlings from the one they planted. We have trees and we have what is called coco pit where they can always raise seedlings like tomatoes, peppers, they will just put it one, one and it will grow, by time they are harvesting what they have grown, they will just plant the next one. They will be expanding and other women will join, all they need are used bags.”
Moji Iheme said, “It is expected that by the time we are done, more than 40 percent of the women in Birshi-Gandau should have backyard bag farms and the amount of money they spend on buying things around these crops would have reduced greatly, maybe some of them will start selling to make money and it will spread from there.”
She advised the beneficiaries to take the training seriously as such opportunities are rare to have, saying,”we thank Development Exchange Centre (DEC) that is giving us the grant through their own grantors, Bread for the World, they gave us money that is enabling us to buy all the things we are giving them. We expect that it is sustainable because they will keep doing it, that’s how it will improve.”
She assured that, “After the 6 months, we are going to give them the seeds and seedling tray and the watering items, the spraying cans; BSADP is fully backing us for any professional advice.”
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