From Abel Léonard, Lafia

The federal government, in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has started distributing chickens and vegetable garden seeds to women farmers in Nasarawa state.

Program coordinator VCDP Nasarawa Dr Eunice Adgidzi during the distribution on Thursday said the chickens and vegetable garden seeds were part of efforts to achieve minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W).

Daily Sun reports that the distribution of the items is done as part of the Supplementary Funding of the Value Chain Development Program 1 (VCDP AF1).

According to Adgidzi, 90 women farmers will each get five chickens – four hens and a rooster to raise, while another 100 will benefit from vegetable seeds rich in vitamins A, C and iron.

The seeds from the vegetable garden included bananas, plantains, oranges, moringa, and pumpkins.
She explained that the beneficiaries came from the local government areas of Lafia, Doma, Wamba, Karu and Nasarawa, where the VCDP was implemented in the state. she said.

Adgidzi added that the distribution of the article was aimed at addressing major challenges in nutrition so that farmers can focus strongly on nutrition at every stage of the beneficiary’s life.

She noted that the main objective of the VCDP was to improve and maintain the income and food security of poor rural households engaged in the production, processing and marketing of rice and cassava in the five targeted LGAs of the state. .

The program coordinator said that the additional funding phase of the VCDP focuses on improving the livelihoods of women and youth, while appreciating the state government support to the VCDP through the payment of a counterpart fund for the implementation of the program in the State.

Opening the distribution in Lafia, the wife of Nasarawa State Governor Hajiya Silifat Sule congratulated the organizers on the program.

She said the program reflected the goals of bringing development to the state by improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially women and youth.

The governor’s wife represented by Hajiya Hauwa Aliyu-Ogah, Permanent Secretary, Nasarawa State Ministry, Women’s Affairs and Social Development, added that the performance of some of the VCDPs benefiting farmers in the state prompted her to launch a full-fledged campaign for more women, especially in rural areas to register and enjoy the benefits of the program.

Sule further said that the distribution of the article was a step in the right direction as it would not only achieve the basic MDD-W result indicator, but would also wake up beneficiary households to change their behaviors in order to improve dietary diversity.

The governor’s wife, however, encouraged all beneficiaries to view the provision of the items as stimulants to build healthy diets and improve household nutrition to achieve healthy living.