THE Chief Research Officer of the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Dr Taiwo Olajide, has called on Nigerians to imbibe the culture of utilising horticultural waste to address the challenges of micronutrients deficiency in the society.
This is just as the agency, in its effort to boost home garden, trained over 200 youths across 44 local government areas of Kano State, on how they can turn waste products into organic manure, which would assist them and prevented them from total dependence on fertiliser.
Dr Olajide who made the call, during the NIHORT training tagged “Awareness Campaign on Agricultural Waste Management and Home Garden for Food and Nutrition Security,” held at NIHORT Bagauda, Kano
She stated that the one-day sensitisation training for agricultural waste management and home garden as well improved food security, noting that a small portion within the compound can be turned into a garden where cheap and safer crops can easily get for consumption
According to her, the workshop was targeted to sensitise youths on modern techniques of utilising waste in the society, as Nigerians are facing numerous challenges of micronutrients deficiency.
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“We want to believe that one of the areas which can curtail micronutrient deficiency is in the area of dietic of diversification and home-garden, hence the need to introduce the participants to the home-garden by introducing them to the use of agricultural waste.
“NIHORT has developed certain technology in the aspect of making use of waste in the environment, through the introduction of waste from producing mushrooms from waste and compost.”
While speaking with some of the participants, Alhaji Shehu Muhammed, from Bebeji local government area and Adeola from Kumbotsho local government, stated that they have acquired a lot of ways they can boost home-garden.
They also disclosed that with knowledge acquired from the trading, it would go a long way, making them produce safer crops as well as provide money for them by the time they are harvesting their crops.
According to them, the training has made them believe that they can turn the waste in their surroundingsto wealth, by making them into compost and also to reduce total dependence on fertilisers.
However, at the end of the programme, each participant was given either mango, guava or pawpaw seedlings to be planted in their homes.
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