Kaduna State government has expressed readiness to collaborate with a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Synergos Nigeria, to boost women participation in Agricbusiness.
The State commissioner for Agriculture and Forestry Development, Prof. Kabiru Mato, gave the assurance on Sunday at the meeting between the State Core-Delivery Team and Synergos team in Kaduna.
Mato said the approach of Synergos showed commitment to improve the lives of women through Agricbusiness as well as tackle malnutrition among children in the state.
He, therefore, assured of the state government’s readiness to support the effort toward achieving the goal of the global NGO in the state.
“I want to assure you that the state government is ready to provide the necessary support and provide conducive environment to the State Partnership for Agriculture (SPA) project.
“We commend Synergos for the learning visit to Kogi, as the government of Kaduna State has learnt the importance of partnership and Synergos clearly represents that dream,“ he said.
The Commissioner emphasised the importance of collaborating with Synergos to improve the economic situation of the country and the livelihood of farmers.
Synergos leader in the State, Mr Victor Adejor, said the NGO was working through a partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) under the SPA project.
Adejor said that the NGO was working as a facilitator with various platforms including a Vision Group, Core Delivery Team, Agriculture Innovative Team and other key stakeholders to improve the sector.
He said the project was a three-year programme working in Kogi, Benue and Kaduna states to move Agriculture from subsistence farming to agricbusiness to improve the lives of people, especially women.
He said the programme would use innovations and new methods including small home gardens farming to improve the nutrition of pregnant women.
He said it was also bringing in a new innovation of soil water trap agriculture to minimise the use of water and at the same time maximise output.
According to him, Synergos, being a gender-sensitive NGO, is working in Kaduna State to identify the major areas of challenges with particular attention to women participation and nutritional value addition.
Adejor explained that the NGO was collaborating with the Women Affairs Ministry in the state to organise a Women Economic Summit in order to identify challenges and gaps for the women farmers.
He said the summit would also sensitise them to modern farming methods underpinning gender and nutrition sensitive agriculture as well as government’s agriculture policies.
The team leader said Synergos had organised awareness workshop to sensitise women and nutrition stakeholders to map out nutrition data and identify areas where malnutrition was prevalent in the state.
“Synergos is gender-sensitive and so, we are trying to ensure that there is space for women because women had been in the background globally.
“We conducted nutrition awareness workshop with stakeholders who spoke on nutrition sensitive agriculture which looked at nutritional crops grown in gardens around the homes aimed at assisting pregnant women.
“Basically, we are working to help drive the Agricultural sector through collaboration, participation of stakeholders and system staking to tackle challenges of Government policies, financing systems and ensure inclusiveness for the benefit of all through a home grown solution, “Adejor said.
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