Smart Agriculture Trainees in Kaduna Laud Home Gardening Training

Some trainees of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Kaduna have commended the outcomes of their home gardening experiences.

Supreme reports that the Care and Action Research Non-Governmental Organisation (CaRE-NGO), in 2020 trained 150 residents of Sabo community in Kaduna on CSA, urban agriculture, and home gardening.

Sharing their experiences on Monday, the beneficiaries said that the training had exposed them to home space management which enabled them to cultivated varieties of crops for consumption.

Mr Danwawo Lamba, a beneficiary of the CSA training, said he ventured into rabbit rearing using new techniques which made him realised more profit by using a sustained method.

“Before attending the training; I usually lose so many rabbits, I was ignorant of the practice of separating male and female siblings from each other to avoid mating, which I never knew and the rabbits kept dying after giving birth.

“Sometimes, my dogs kill the rabbits and i was taught at the training to hold one and call my dog to come and kill it, when he brings his mouth closer to the rabbit, I then slapped him so hard, doing that consistently made the dogs realise the rabbits are not to be attacked.

“With the knowledge I applied to my rabbit rearing, I make profit by selling them whenever I need money, and eat them when i have plenty’’, Lamba said.

Another beneficiary, Mrs Linda Yanusa, said she cultivated yam and potatoes using empty sacks at her house.

“I never knew growing such crops in sacks was possible, after the training i tried it and it worked.

“I have enough tubers of yam to feed my children, it has saved me so much as against buying from the market’’, she said.

On his part, Mr Alex Umar said he regretted cementing his compound without leaving space for cultivation.

Umar said, however, that he was able to cultivate vegetables in sacks and had not gone to market to buy vegetables for a long time.

The Coordinator of the project, Prof. Bala Dogo, said the project was designed to provide skills and knowledge of urban gardening to people because of the challenges of insecurity in accessing their farms.

Dogo who was represented by Samson Emmanuel-Jigawa, said that the project taught the participants fish and rabbit farming, piggery, and urban gardening which involved planting vegetables in sacks, roof tops, and economic trees for wealth creation.

He added that the participants were also trained on technology for food processing, dry season farming and irrigation, and preservation of vegetables using earthen pots and many others.

He commended the participants for their successes, active involvement and interest.

Supreme reports 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.