A group, Catalysing Strengthened Policy Action for Healthy Diets and Resilience (CASCADE) Nigeria is set to support 7,500 Women smallholder farmers. CASCADE will be giving the farmers orange flesh potatoes vine, while 3,500 others will get vegetable seeds across four implementing states of Bauchi, Jigawa, Kebbi and Nasarawa.
The aim is to increase access to and consumption of healthy diets, resilience to price, and climate change-related shocks and stresses for women of reproductive age and children Under-5. The Program Officer said that CASCADE is giving out support to 1,482 women smallholders in Bauchi state with orange flesh potato vine and 613 other women are benefitting from assorted vegetables.
He added, “In Bauchi state, we are working in Bauchi, Dass, Jama’are, Ningi, and Toro local government areas” The organisation also reiterated its commitment to supporting women smallholder farmers to engage in nutrition-sensitive agriculture in their localities.
Program Manager of CASCADE Nigeria, Bauchi office, Isaac Ishaya committed the flag off of 2024 Rain Red season agricultural input fair and voucher redemption at Miri Community in Bauchi local government area. Isaac Ishaya said that for CASCADE, the idea is to provide the needed support at household level for women smallholder farmers to be able to leverage their backyard gardens to cultivate vegetables and orange flesh potatoes.
According to him, “Looking at the nutritional value of this potato in addressing hidden hunger as well as the importance (that) vegetables have to the nutrition of households; this drove our commitment to strengthen women participation in agriculture through assessing agricultural inputs”.
He added that to reinforce confidence among women smallholder farmers, CASCADE Nigeria has engaged private sector actors intending to strengthen agricultural linkages between the farmers and lead agricultural firms.
According to him, “We want to boost confidence among smallholder farmers’ participation around their source of input as well as bridge the gap between farmers and source of input “.
In her remarks, the Head of Women in Agriculture, Bauchi State Agricultural Supply Company, Helen Ciroma said that the support to women smallholder farmers will improve their livelihood and their nutritional status.
According to her, “The orange flesh potatoes have nutritional value, it’s rich in vitamin A, helps in reducing inflammation, boosts the immune system and it’s good for patients with diabetes”. She noted that the women can use sacks to plant the potatoes at home because “The leaves can be used as vegetables while the tubers are good for fufu.”
Acting Executive Director of Forward in Action for Education, Poverty and Malnutrition, (FAcE-PaM), Dabis Mwalike said that as partners working on Nutrition the engagement of women smallholder farmers in backyard farming will improve the nutrition status of women and children less than five years of age.
Some of the women who spoke to our Correspondent said that the potato vine and vegetable seeds will boost their farming. They, therefore, commended CASCADE for the support, saying that it will go a long way in assisting them to contribute to the well-being of children
