The Care and Action Research Non-Governmental Organisation (CaRE-NGO) has trained 150 residents of Sabon Tasha, Kaduna on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), urban agriculture, and home gardening.
Prof. Bala Dogo, the Coordinator of the project, said at the opening of the training in Kaduna on Thursday that the goal was to empower the community with smart agriculture techniques for food production.
Dogo said that the training was supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-Small Grant Programme (SGP) Nigeria and was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme.
He said that the GEF-SGP Nigeria launched in 2009, supports non-governmental and community-based organisations in the country to protect the environment, while generating sustainable livelihoods for the poor and the marginalised.
According to him, CSA is an approach that guides actions to transform agricultural systems to effectively support development in communities and ensure food security in changing climate.
“While urban agriculture is the practice of farming within the boundaries of towns or cities,” he said.
He said that the participants would be trained on CSA, urban agriculture, roof-top farming, raising of seedlings, land preparation for heaps using sacks, local chicken production, and dry season farming of vegetables.
“Other areas include grass cutter, rabbit and snail farming, fertilizer production from eggshells, yam cultivation in sacks and other forms of agricultural practices in available spaces in homes.
“After the training, the 150 trainees, made up of youths and women groups, farmers associations and tribal unions, will come up with action plans, and would be expected to train others.
“CaRE-NGO CSA Resource Centre will supervise their activities and provide the needed guidance and technical support,” he said.
Dogo said that CSA, urban and home gardening would provide a huge opportunity for farming households to sustain food production in little spaces in their homes and urban centres, while protecting the climate and the environment.
“We at CaRE-NGO want people in the Sabon Tasha community to know that within the little space in and around their houses, they can do a lot of farming activities using climate smart agriculture.
“With little space and water households can produce vegetables, grow fruit trees, keep grasscutters, rabbits, fish, poultry, pigs, goats and other livestock.
“Water from the fishpond can be used to water the garden, chicken drops to feed the fishes, while dung from livestock can be used as organic fertilizer for backyard garden or greenhouse,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NGO unveiled a Greenhouse constructed and demonstrated how to produce all kinds of vegetables and nurseries for fruit trees and other crops.
The NGO also inaugurated a borehole constructed and donated to it and its host community by GEF-SGP Nigeria. (NAN)
