Twenty-nine farmers, extension agents, food processors, and food entrepreneurs participated in a training of trainers workshop on nutrition and agripreneurship in Benue State, Nigeria. The IITA Zero Hunger Initiative (IITA-ZHI) project conducted the five-day intensive training from 15 to 19 August in partnership with the Center for Food Technology and Research of the Benue State University (CEFTER-BSU) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development Value Chain Development Programme (IFAD-VCDP).
Benue State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Kester Kyenge, lauded the collaborative efforts of IITA-ZHI, CEFTER-BSU, IFAD-VCDP, and other partners to make the training possible. He noted that today’s global hunger threat highlighted the training’s essence and called for an inward solution to address it. He praised the workshop’s gender mainstreaming, evident in the female majority participation (26 women and three men). “As long as we keep emphasizing the role of women in food value chain development, we are halfway towards ensuring nutrition and food security. The government’s responsibility is to keep encouraging women to be drivers of this food sustenance vehicle,” Kyenge said.
IITA-ZHI Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager, Oyewale Abioye, celebrated extension agents’ ceaseless efforts to achieve zero hunger in the state. He disclosed that early interactions between ZHI and CEFTER led to mapping CEFTER as one of the Initiatives to support the state government in achieving zero hunger and culminated in signing an MoU between IITA and BSU.
Abioye noted that the IITA-ZHI in Benue State has three main components: agricultural policy assessment for technology uptake, productivity enhancement for cassava and rice farmers, and capacity development for agriculture extension officers, service providers, and farmers. Based on these, the project has engaged the government and other stakeholders to assess agriculture policies and has made recommendations to ensure the attainment of zero hunger in the state.
The IITA-ZHI project’s work with extension agents and other stakeholders aims to increase farmers’ production capacity and improve collaboration between the government and farmers to achieve zero hunger. Capacity-building activities include introducing extension agents to digital agricultural tools like the IITA Herbicide Calculator and Area Calculator, which are available on mobile app stores. While the Herbicide Calculator helps farmers determine the right amounts of agrochemicals to use to avoid overdosing or underdosing on farmlands, the land measurement tool—Area Calculator—assists farmers in determining the exact size of their land to ensure they purchase the correct quantity of inputs. This, in turn, leads to profit maximization by farmers.
The training also addressed cassava substitution in pastry making, particularly now, with wheat costs and availability hugely impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Another rationale for the training, according to Abioye, was to improve nutrition for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and households in general with simple and non-expensive products like vitamin A cassava and High-Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF). IITA-CGIAR has improved some of these cassava products, which are not entirely new.
CEFTER-BSU Center Leader Dr Barnaba Ikyo noted that the skills learned in this workshop hold huge income generation potential and charged participants to maximize it. He appreciated IITA for actualizing the MoU signed in 2022. The workshop focused on value addition, teaching participants to prepare products such as Cassava–Beans Moi-Moi, Combo bits, Yellow cassava Garri, Cassava Custard, and Peanut Burger. They also learned to make HQCF cakes, puff-puff cakes, peanut burgers, and cassava custard (Castard).
The attendees received their participation Certificates from the Permanent Secretary Hembadoon Gum, representing the Hon Commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, of the Benue State University, Prof. Mike Odugbo Odey, who represented the Vice-Chancellor.
One of the participants and wife of the Paramount Ruler of Tiv Land, Prof. Felicia Ayatse, commended the workshop organizers and expressed optimism that the training would go a long way in ensuring nutrition and food security in the state. She hoped the training would provide Benue women with sources of income when the knowledge is eventually stepped down by the participants to members of their various cooperatives and communities.
Contributed by Zero Hunger Project Team
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