HarvestPlus, AGRA, Others Partner to Boost Nutrition, Economic Empowerment of Rural Women

James Emejo in Abuja

Worried by the lack of support for women despite their contribution to agricultural development and economic empowerment, as well as their influence on the allocation of household income, HarvestPlus has launched an initiative to empower rural women and improve their household nutrition and income through the biofortification of crops.

With funding support from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), HarvestPlus has partnered with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under the  Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) to scale up the production and consumption of Vitamin A Cassava and Maize in order to improve household nutrition and income in Niger and Kaduna States.

At a training programme for women farmers under the Women In Agriculture (WIA) platform, the organisers have helped to transfer agriculture and nutrition proven innovations and technologies in the production, processing, marketing, consumption and nutrition to families.

They also disseminate agriculture and nutrition information by stepping down knowledge and skills acquired at trainings to the community and household levels.

The selected WIA officers will subsequently step down biofortification messages during fortnight trainings using an extension training tool developed by HarvestPlus to promote effective gender-based extension delivery methods.

The training modules cuts across production, processing, distribution and consumption of biofortified foods, including nutrition education, and encourages women at the household level to utilise biofortified crops to address malnutrition and stimulate new sources of income for women.

Nutrition and Post-Harvest Officer at HarvestPlus, Olatundun Kalejaiye, said conventional foods are often starchy adding that biofortification of staple crops will address malnutrition and hidden hunger.

She said, “People especially women and children are more vulnerable to micronutrient deficiency such as vitamin A. Giving our children diets that have good sources of vitamin A is one good way to build their immunity so that they can effectively fight diseases including preventing the severity of diarrhoea.

“Vitamin A maize and vitamin A cassava are available and they are part of our traditional diets. Women should therefore be happy to choose these crops and their food products for better nutrition. I am happy because today more than 40 women were trained and about 20 of them will be engaged to pilot the step-down training at the community level.

“The women will also be identifying women in the communities who will take up micro-scale investments or who are already investing in biofortified crop processing and trading and they will be trained on business skills, quality control and product packaging. We look forward to seeing that these women have improved livelihood.”

Kalejaiye said the objective was to improve the knowledge of women extension agents on biofortification and nutrition so they are able to mainstream biofortification into their daily engagements with women in local communities.

The intervention would also build the capacity of WIA officers to process quality value-added food products using vitamin A maize, vitamin A cassava, cowpea, soya beans and other nutrient-rich crops for household and commercial purposes.

The organisers also seek to impart skills to carry out biofortification sensitization and recipe training among women in order to influence them to consume biofortified foods at the household level and to improve their income by processing and marketing vitamin A maize or cassava food products.

The capacity-building programme also witnessed the distribution of start-up packages to various cooperative groups to help improve their knowledge of processing, packaging and distribution.

Kalejaiye demonstrated the use of each gadget including a weighing scale, sealing machine and moisture content meter and packaging nylon to the women processors.

She reminded the processors of the importance of Vitamin A in household nutrition and encourage them to be creative and skilful as HarvestPlus awaits their testimonies on generating more income as a result of the training scheme. 

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