IITA trains northeast women in beekeeping and goat rearing

Through the USAID-funded Feed-the-Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity, IITA recently built the capacity of 28 women in beekeeping to enhance household nutrition and income. The three-day training took place in Marama community in Hawul Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State between 20 and 22 October. It featured beehives set-up, colony management, and other skills necessary to set up a beekeeping enterprise to produce honey and other hive products. Honey contains many nutrients that are useful in fortifying foods for children that have just been weaned, and it is a perfect substitute for sugar in adult meals.

They conducted similar learning events for 30 women in Demsa (October 2020) and 29 women in Guyuk (July 2020) LGAs of Adamawa State, bringing the total number of women trained to 87.  At the end of the training, participants received necessary start-up kits such as honey production suits, hives, and other demonstration apiary equipment to commence the beekeeping enterprise, which will improve their household nutrition and livelihood.

In a similar development, 154 women from three LGAs, Gombi (Adamawa), Bayo, and Kwaya-Kusar LGAs (Borno), participated in goat rearing skill-acquisition activities in October 2020. The training was in collaboration with Life Helper Initiatives, who taught the women the techniques and methodologies for goat feeding, health, and housing.

The women also learned how to use supplementary feeds to improve animal productivity and breeding, the importance of goat feeding and nutrition, standard procedures for feed combinations, drug administration, and other basic practices, which will lead to improved productivity and reproduction.

The organizers will extend the training to additional 400 women in six LGAs across Adamawa and Borno states in the coming months.