No fewer than 50 women selected from eight Local Government Areas of Kano State have been trained on climate smart Agriculture.
The empowerment training was organised by Bridge Connect Africa Initiative (BCAI), a Non-Governmental Organisation in collaboration with fixING under the Women Against Violence Empowerment through Sustainability (WAVES) II Project, funded through the Nigerian French Embassy Fund for Civil Society Organisations.
Speaking at the commencement of the first training session held at the Industrial Training Fund Centre (ITF) in Kano, Ruquayya Abdulhadi, the Programme Manager, said the training is aimed to empowering beneficiaries to engage in sustainable practice that enhances climate resilience and improves food production.
She explained that as part of the project programmes, the climate smart training would focus on cucumber and okra production with an introduction to climate smart agriculture, nursery establishment, transplanting process, harvesting techniques and associated post harvest handling.
“This crops are crops that can grow in 40 days. We have also provided them with start-up packs comprising of seeds, containers among others do same practicals at home and by that, we expect them to teach other women”, she noted.
The programme manager also highlighted that the training would also serve as a sustainable means of livelihood and a tool for economic empowerment which can serve as a shield to Gender-Based Violence.
While noting that the beneficiaries had earlier recieved training on GBV, she said the participants would also be exposed to business development training and provided with platform to showcase products at the end of the nine-months programme.
Some of the beneficiaries, who spoke to BusinessDay, including Maryam Ibrahim and Garba Mohammad from Bichi and Kumbtoso Local Government Areas, commended the NGO for selecting them to be part of the programme, promising to utilise the skills to build a robust business and improve their livelihood.
