Chukwuemeka Egejuru
Home Garden has been described as an essential tool for fighting hunger, ensuring food safety and food security at home among others.
The founder, Hope For Farmers, Women and Girls Initiative (HOFWGI), Dr. Mabel Ifeoma Onwuka who disclosed this during a one day empowerment workshop in Bende, Abia state, charged women to engage in home-garden as a means of also contributing to the family finance.
The Associate Professor who decried the poor economic hardship as well as food insecurity facing various homes further urged women embrace new agricultural innovations to improve yields and feed their families.
The Ag. Director, Gender and Child Development, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, also warned women and rural farmers to desist from indescriminate use of inorganic fertilizers and planting on refuse dump sites, describing them as harmful to human health.
Dr. Onwuka prescribed the use of home-made compost manure for the production of healthy foods, as a means of saving high cost for synthetic fertilizers.
She called on farmers to always stick to the prescribed healthy standards in farming to avert further health damage and food poisoning among others.
In her vote of thanks, one of the workshop beneficiaries, Mrs. Ezinne Kalu thanked the founder, HOFWGI, Dr. Onwuka for enlightening them with best agricultural practices and new innovations, describing them as apt and helpful in this critical economic downturn.
Highlights of the workshop were free distribution of organic fertilizers, orange flesh potato vines, among other farm inputs.