In its bid to stem the tide of starvation and malnutrition in rural Nigeria, particularly amongst girls, HarvestPlus with funding and assist from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), has scaled up the manufacturing and consumption of Vitamin A Cassava and Vitamin A Maize to enhance family vitamin and earnings in Niger and Kaduna states.
HarvestPlus is in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) via the ADP’s Women in Agriculture (WIA) Extension Programme.
The WIA is a medium for the switch of agriculture and nutrition-proven improvements and applied sciences in manufacturing, processing, advertising, consumption and vitamin to households. They disseminate agriculture and vitamin info by stepping down information and abilities acquired at coaching to the neighborhood and family ranges.
The focus of the initiative based on HarvestPlus is on girls, due to the important function they play within the agricultural and financial improvement of any nation via their contribution by way of harvesting, processing, storage, and advertising of farm produce and their affect on the allocation of family earnings.
During the coaching held in Niger State, which cuts throughout councils within the three agricultural zones, the chosen WIA girls had been skilled on biofortified meals merchandise for family and business makes use of.
A area day was carried out at Dagodagbe village, which is a mannequin neighborhood for the AGRA/HarvestPlus mission in Paikoro native council. It is maize and cassava-producing and consuming neighborhood. Being a mannequin village for scaling biofortification, the sector day was used to strengthen the utilisation of VAM for family vitamin and earnings era to make sure all elements of the worth chain are in place
The Deputy Head of WIA on the Niger State Agricultural and Mechanisation Development Authority (NAMDA), Halima Abubakar, who coordinated the affair of the WIA girls within the state, stated the coaching is of the essence at a time when many households are struggling to place meals on their tables and ladies.
The Niger State Nutrition Officer (SNO) underneath the State Ministry of Health, Hajiya Asamau Abubakar Mohammed, who was completely happy to be a part of the coaching, emphasised that addressing malnutrition is by collective efforts of many sectors, including that she appears to be like ahead to having the WIAs constructing the capability of her well being group.
The Nutrition and Post-Harvest officer at HarvestPlus, Olatundun Kalejaiye, was additionally happy to have facilitated the coaching to strengthen capacities on methods to ship vitamin and biofortification massages to susceptible girls.
Kalejaiye highlighted the intention of the coaching, which was to empower and equip the WIA with the information to coach different girls on methods to improve their earnings, as they course of and promote vitamin A maize and cassava meals and in addition make use of the recipes on the family stage to enhance on the dietary high quality of their household meals.
The Country Manager HarvestPlus Nigeria, Dr. Yusuf Dollah enlightened the WIA girls teams and different neighborhood members on the occasion in regards to the relationship between not consuming nutritious meals and hidden starvation. Dr. Yusuf introduced a maize planter to the neighborhood farmers to make sure adherence to good agricultural practices.
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