Twenty-nine farmers, extension agents, food processors, and food entrepreneurs participated in a training of trainers workshop on nutrition and agripreneurship in Benue State, Nigeria. The IITA Zero Hunger Initiative (IITA-ZHI) project conducted the five-day intensive training from 15 to 19 August in partnership with the Center for Food Technology and Research of the Benue State University (CEFTER-BSU) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development Value Chain Development Programme (IFAD-VCDP).
Benue State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Kester Kyenge, lauded the collaborative efforts of IITA-ZHI, CEFTER-BSU, IFAD-VCDP, and other partners to make the training possible. He noted that today’s global hunger threat highlighted the training’s essence and called for an inward solution to address it. He praised the workshop’s gender mainstreaming, evident in the female majority participation (26 women and three men). “As long as we keep emphasizing the role of women in food value chain development, we are halfway towards ensuring nutrition and food security. The government’s responsibility is to keep encouraging women to be drivers of this food sustenance vehicle,” Kyenge said.