IITA Zero Hunger Project empowers women and youth in nutrition and agripreneurship in Ogun State
December 22, 2022
Fifteen extension Agents, food processors, and food entrepreneurs in Ogun State have been trained as trainers on nutrition and agripreneurship, with particular emphasis on the vitamin A cassava variety. IITA’s Zero Hunger Initiative (IITA-ZHI) project conducted the 5-day intensive training in partnership with the Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB)) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development Value Chain Development Programme (IFAD-VCDP) from 5 to 9 December at the FUNAAB Cassava Processing Centre in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
IITA Nutrition Research Associate Greg Nwaoliwe speaking with the trainees at FUNAAB Ogun State.
Resource persons for the training included IITA-ZHI Project Training Manager Bolanle Olorode, IITA Food and Nutrition Research Associate Greg Nwaoliwe, and four staff of FUNAAB’s Department of Food Science and Technology. The cassava value-addition course included:
An overview of cassava as a multipurpose crop
The role of value addition in diversifying products from cassava
Production techniques for making high-quality cassava flour (HQCF), yellow cassava garri, yellow cassava fufu, Casstard™, moi-moi, puff-puff, Combo bits, and peanut burger
IITA-ZHI Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Manager, Oyewale Abioye, facilitated an Agripreneurship session in which he emphasized :
Understanding leadership
Gender balancing in leadership
Required skills in leadership
Organizational and community leadership
Mentorship
Trainees learning to make Vitamin A fufu during the nutrition and agripreneurship training.
He emphasized developing viable business plans through market research. The role of packaging and branding, which serves as a core in promoting their business enterprise to attract the desired audience, was also highlighted. Some participants also shared their experiences, particularly regarding branding and packaging.
Presentation of Certificate to one of the trainees by FUNAAB Prof. Abdul-Rasaq Adebowale.
The workshop highlight was the presentation of certificates to participants at the end of the training by Professor Abdul-Rasaq Adebowale from FUNAAB and the handover of starter packs for the trainees to practice what they had learned and step down the training to other women and youth.
Showing off a harvest of vitamin A cassava during the nutrition and agripreneurship training in Ogun State.
During post-event interviews, participants commended the workshop organizers for the training, expressing optimism that it would go a long way to ensure nutrition and food security in Ogun State in addition to providing 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 Oyewale Abioye
Olamide Deborah Nwanze is a Senior Research Associate specializing in gender mainstreaming research to inform participatory and inclusive breeding, variety development, and seed systems policies regarding root, tuber, and banana (RTB) crops in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ibadan and holds an MSc and B. Agric in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Olamide is a fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development – Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy (AWARD-GRASP) and the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT). She seeks to apply her gender-mainstreaming learnings, gender-responsive research, and policy development, and review expertise to facilitate women, youth, children, and vulnerable social group’s access to and adoption of agricultural Innovations that guarantee food, nutrition, income, and livelihood security in Africa. Her current roles include mentoring research fellows, development of guides and training manuals, implementation and adaptation of gender frameworks and tools, value chain actors’ engagement as citizen science partners, policy review and redesign, data management, and analysis. Her current research explores mixed methods and participatory and interdisciplinary approaches to capture and highlight gender dynamics, needs, preferences, and challenges stakeholders face within the agricultural livelihood value chain to prioritize gender-inclusive strategies in breeding programs, policy design, and implementation.
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