Agriculture
Body Trains Women On Organic Compost Manure
The Executive Director, Women Empowerment Programme, Mrs Priscilla Achakpa, says the training of women in making organic compost manure is part of the empowerment programmes to eradicate poverty.
Achakpa told The Tide source in Abuja, recently that the women were also taught how to store rain water in order to cater for their farming and household needs.
She said, “Part of our empowerment programme is compost making, and we also train our women on rain water harvesting and storage, especially during the rainy season.”
The Executive Director said that during the rainy season when rain water was available, some of the women were taught to store rain water to enable them care for themselves.
“Some will just store the water for few months or temporarily pending when the dry season comes, but as a matter of fact, we have taught them how to store the water,” she said.
Achakpa said that whenever they encounter difficulty in getting artificial fertiliser, they made use of organic fertiliser for their farming.
She said that though there were issues of flooding this year, most communities where the organisation worked, were not really affected.
She noted that during the rainy season last year, Yauri Community in Kebbi, was one of the communities affected due to the opening of the dam from Sokoto State, which washed away their farm produce.
However, since the women had been taught to make compost manure, they regained their farmlands and produced, through organic farming which nourishes the soil.
Achakpa noted that in terms of sensitisation, the organisation could not get to every community in the country because of limited resources.
“Nigeria as a whole is a big country, so if we have to go round the communities, there has to be enough resources to go round knowing that our national office has been promoting the programme,” she said.
Federal Government and the Ogun State Government, on Wednesday, distributed farm inputs to farmers as part of effort to address food security challenge.
The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Toyin Ayo-Ajayi, during the flag-off ceremony of Inputs Redemption Under The National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP), in Ogun State, disclosed that beneficiaries of the gesture were primarily rice, maize and cassava farmers across the State.
Ayo-Ajayi commended the Ogun State Government for partnering with the government at the centre for the effort in supporting farmers with inputs that would bring about yieldings for local consumption and likely exportation.
She noted that government is supporting rice, cassava and maize farmers with inputs worth N212,000; N189,000 and N186,000 respectively.
The Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Kehinde Jokotoye, who represented the Commissioner in the Ministry, Bolu Owotomo, stated that traditional farmers are critical in food production, hence the need to encourage and support them with inputs that would bring about desired results during harvesting.
Owotomo said: “Let us make good use of this opportunity, so that the success of this phase will make farmers benefit more from the state and federal governments of Nigeria.”
Earlier, State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Oluwatoyin Ayo-Ajayi, appreciated the present administration for partnering with the federal government for the initiative, adding that the programme is designed to support farmers at the grassroots level in cassava, rice and maize with inputs such as, seeds, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, to boost their production and enhance their livelihood.