Women In Agriculture Educate Women On Food Processing, Marketing In Edo State
By Rosemary Okoduwa
The Edo State chapter of Women in Agriculture have set up enlightenment programme with a view to availing Women and young girls of opportunities they can tap into in the agricultural chain to create employment for themselves and also become employers of labour.
Speaking at a talk show on processing and marketing of agricultural products, the president of Women in Agriculture, Mrs. Debby Iserhienrhien who spoke to the topic, “The Beauty of Processing Agri-products”, pointed out that agricultural product processing helps to add value to farm produce, ensure surplus are taken care of during surplus seasons, adding that with processing, powdered egg can be produced from surplus eggs during egg glut.
While urging Women and girls who may not want to go into direct farming to fit into the agricultural value chain by getting involved in offtaking, Mrs. Iserhienrhien noted that they can take it a notch further by getting the approval of regulatory agencies like National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and others to boost their agri-business. She stressed that these agencies can be brought to register the women in their group when they signify interest.
“Young women/Girls who will not like to do farm work can engage in off taking businesses, offtake from farmer’s, brand or package them and supply to supermarkets, like shoprite, market square etc.
“To add more value to our farm produce we can take steps further by registering with gove agencies, like CAC, NAFDAC, SON, BAR CODES packaged with branded names so our products can go far and access both local and international markets”.
Speaking on food production, Mrs Gloria Ihaza took the women on plantain, yam and pepper farming and the use of compost manure to grow foods organically for health reasons. Mrs.Ihaza also demonstrated how plantain suckers can be treated of nematodes and how one stem can be used to reproduce 40 -.42 suckers in less than 4 – 6 weeks.
Mrs Osaretin Ehigiator also took the women on livestock production and enumerated the beauty of goat rearing, pointing out that it is stress free and elaborated on how to make it profitable.
The Pannelist session was moderated by Mrs. Goretti Osiomwan.