International NGO Commences training on Farmers Field and Business School (FFBS) approach in Bauchi

Acute malnutrition has been described as a major public health problem in Africa, affecting about 17 States in Nigeria with significant deterioration.

Major contributing factors of acute malnutrition include poor food consumption patterns and high morbidity rates.

Available data shows that 75% of Africans cannot afford healthy diets and no fewer than 20% of the population are infants and young children.

The ongoing economic crisis has resulted in food insecurity and 8.7 million people require urgent assistance in Nigeria.

These and many other problems ignited the introduction of the CAtalyzing Strengthened policy aCtion for heAlthy Diets and resiliencE (CASCADE) which is a program implemented by an International NGO Cooperative Assistance for Relief Everywhere (CARE) and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) with funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

CASCADE started in the 2022 and expected to terminate by 2026 and is implemented across six countries of Nigeria, Benin, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda.

To achieve the aims of strengthening nutrition systems that wil contribute in ending malnutrition for 1.1 milion women of reproductive age and children under the age of 5 in Nigeria, nine participants each from four northern states of the the country converged in Bauchi for a 5 day training of trainers on Farmer Field and Business School Approach (FFBS).

The senior technical adviser of CARE Frantz Seide said the training is to update the participants who are mostly extension workers on the techniques of passing information to communities on how to reduce limited access for women to economic empowerment.

Also speaking, the project manager of CASCADE in CARE NIGERIA Isaac Ishaya Audu, noted that the project interest is to empower women through enhancing their production system at household level, so as to improve nutrition sensitive agriculture.

According to him, the program is also designed to mitigate farmer-extension ratio gap which has been a continuous challenge facing agriculture sector in Nigeria.

The 36 participants were selected from the Women In Agriculture section of Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) of Bauchi, Jigawa, Kebbi and Nasarawa States.