The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has trained 200 youth, women in the Federal Capital Territory on the ‘Grow Your Vegetable’ Programme.
The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne said the essence of the programme is to teach the participants how to maximise the little spaces they have in the environments to plant vegetables.
“The essence of this programme is to inform us of what we used to know while growing up that our parents used to use every available space at the back of the house or in front of the house to plant vegetables, but urbanization is trying to take that away, thereby making live in the urban city more expensive than the ones in the rural areas.
“But NALDA is trying to encourage you to grow your vegetables in order to reduce your cost of living.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has mandated NALDA to encourage all Nigerians to grow what the eat and eat what we grow and one of the easiest way to get everyone on board is to introduce Grow Your Vegetable Programme, which whether you are a landlord or tenant, you can grow the food within your environment using, used bags or broken buckets”, he said.
He urged the participants and residents of Abuja to turn their flower pots to vegetable pots, put a vegetable seed, then between two to three months, they will start harvesting.
Prince Ikonne said the programme is targeted at encouraging Nigerians especially those that are living within the urban areas to grow their vegetables.
“The FCT beneficiaries are 200, we have provided them with hybrid seeds like pepper, tomato, onion and pumpkin (ugu) , also fertilizer, to encourage them to start growing their own food.
“Going forward, those that were not able to be trained, they should take the advantage of this information to begin to grow their vegetables at home because it is doable and they have all it takes to do it and I believe they can do it.
“We are starting off from here in Abuja, the next stop will be in Lagos, then Port Harcourt so that we can sensitise them”, he added.
In his speech, the Minister of FCT, Muhammed Bello represented by the MD Abuja Enterprise Shehu Abdulkadir, said the programme will bring succour to families and boost the implementation of the Government’s Back to Farm Initiative.
“Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy and in these challenging economic times, this initiative by NALDA will go a long way in not only providing some financial succour to families, but will be an added boost to the implementation of the Federal Government’s ‘Back To Farm Initiative’.
“It is my sincere hope that this programme will once more increase an awareness amongst Nigerians on the benefits of backyard vegetables farming not just for healthy and more nutritious diet, but also the renaissance of agriculture as mainstay of our economy”, the Minister noted.
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