Smallholder farmers in Gombe commend Sasakawa’s nutrition-sensitive agriculture initiative
Smallholder farmers in Gabukka and Dadin-Kowa communities in Gombe state have commended Sasakawa Africa Association’s (SAA) nutrition-sensitive agriculture initiative being implemented in their communities.
Our correspondent reports that Sasakawa is an international agricultural value addition organisation which has been providing technical services and other supports to extension agents and smallholder farmers in Gombe state.
The women groups gave the commendations on Thursday during SAA’s media field activities to Gabukka and Dadin-Kowa communities in Kwami and Yamaltu/Deba Local Government Areas respectively.
The event was organised to showcase the activities of project implementation as well as to measure successes and impact made so far.
Marka Galadima, a smallholder farmer and mother of five from Gabukka community in Kwami said Sasakawa’s nutrition training had impacted greatly on their diets.
Galadima said women in their community were trained on how to use agricultural produce within their domain to get the required nutrients to enhance their diets and improve their health and those of their households.
She stated that before Sasakawa’s training, women farmers usually sell the good grains and keep the fungi-infested grains (aflatoxins) for feeding but now we now select feed our household with good grains.
She noted that their husbands and children were now more satisfied and feel better because “our foods are now healthier and tastier.”
“We were taught how to prepare what we know before but in a better and more hygienic way and that’s why our children no longer fall sick like before.”
Hauwa Abdullahi, another smallholder farmer from the same community as Galadima who sells ‘kunun geda’ a local drink made from groundnut, guinea corn and Tamarin said she makes more money now.
Abdullahi said “we were taught how to make this kunun geda in a better way and this has made my kunu special and I now have more customers and also get more money than before.”
In Dadin-Kowa Yelwa community in Yamaltu-Deba Local Government, Salama women group said Sasakawa’s intervention had empowered their members.
Mrs Rhodas Kefas, the leader of the group said women were given agricultural inputs by SAA as well as basic nutrition trainings on how to combine foods to derive good health benefits.
Kefas stated that they had been able to organise themselves into cooperative through the extension services received from SAA and had saved a lot of money to supports their members to boost agricultural productivity.
“Our children are looking robust and healthy; we thank Sasakawa Africa Association for this support. We are now teaching other women and our children too,’’ she said.
Halima Usman, a member of the women group said they were taught how to combine the right foods to get the needed nutrients from what they produce and to make fruits part of their diets.
Usman said she now has food timetable to ensure she doesn’t repeat same food often, adding that the agro-processing training had helped them to come up with different varieties to meet the nutritional demands of their households without spending any money because “we farm what we eat.”
Addressing the women group in Dadin-Kowa Yelwa, SAA’s Acting Thematic Director, Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Communications, Ethiopia Tadesse said the intervention was not just to enhance agricultural productivity but to ensure that they were healthy.
Tadesse said that was the reason for Sasakawa’s nutrition-sensitive agriculture to ensure that the women and their household take balanced diets.
She said she was particularly happy to hear that the women groups were getting supports from their husbands and “that shows there is sustainability of what you are doing.’’
