IITA trains women on homestead gardening
Achieving food security also involves addressing nutrient deficiency. Using the space around a house, families can often raise a homestead garden to supplement the nutritional quality of home meals. Through the USAID-funded Feed-the-future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity, IITA trained 300 women in homestead gardening between 7 and 10 December in northeastern Nigeria.
Women in Kwaya-Kusar LGA, Borno State practising how to make organic manure from Animal dungs.
The training covered five Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Borno State; namely, Bayo, Biu, Hawul, Kwaya-Kusar, and Shani. The participants learned to cultivate tomato, okra, pepper, and green leafy vegetables such as ugwu and spinach in their backyard gardens.
As well as improving household nutrition, these homestead gardens will provide an additional income source to the women.
Participants in Bayo LGA learning to improvise land space with empty container or used tyre with manure for planting vegetables in their backyards.
At the end of the training, the women received improved vegetable seeds to support their new endeavor. Earlier in August and September 2020, the Integrated Agriculture Activity conducted a similar capacity building exercise for 838 women in Demsa, Fufore, Gombi, Guyuk, Hong, Song, and Yola South LGAs, Adamawa State, bringing the total women trained in the two states to 1138.
