Some Agro Entrepreneurs have called on the government at all levels to support the production of nutritious food from Vitamin-A cassava, maize, rice and potato to tackle malnutrition.
The entrepreneurs made the call during a two-day training for processors of agriculture products organised by Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) on Tuesday in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
The 54 agro entrepreneurs were drown from four Local Governments Areas in Nasarawa and Benue States respectively.
The participants from Nasarawa State were drown from Lafia, Awe, Kokona and Doma LGAs, while those from Benue State were from Gboko, Makurdi, Otukpo, and Gwer East LGAs.
Mrs Abigail Kashimana-Orbunde, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sekura Global Innovations Ltd, Benue State said orange sweet potato for example has a lot of nutrients and is good for both children and adults without any negative effect.
She explained that unfortunately a lot of people do not know how to produce different recipes using the Vitamin-A potato, cassava, maize and rice.
She added that a lot of people do not adopt the use of this particular farm products as a result of ignorance.
“That is why this training is educative, inspiring and benefiting to us as it had exposed us to so many things that would help boost what we were already doing,” she added.
She called on the Federal, States and Local Governments to key into the programme and support small businesses in order to fight the menace of malnutrition in the country.
Ehada Isa, CEO of Guto Farms Lafia appreciated the organisers of the intensive training on production of nutritious recipes using Vitamin-A cassava, maize, rice and potato.
He explained that now he knows better the nutrient strength of the products and their importance to human growth and development.
He said that if the government can lent a support to them, it would go a long way toward producing massive nutritious food from locally sourced crops to address the problem of malnutrition.
Also speaking, Mr Orngu Africa-Orngu, Junior Associate Strengthing Nutrition In Priority Staples, GAIN said they were implementing the project in Nasarawa, Benue and Oyo states to train processors on the value chains of the products toward ensuring food nutrition security.
He added that nutrition security was one of the most pressing challenges for sustainable social and economic development in the country.
“Meeting this need is our target in order to tackle malnutrition because the diets of many Nigerians are poor.
“Many Nigerians are currently experiencing vitamin and mineral deficiencies leading to severe health outcomes including premature and preventable death of children under five,” he added.
Africa-Orngu further said that 10 of their previous trainees from Nasarawa and Benue States had recently won grand awards of N3 million each from the organisation to boost their businesses.
He therefore encouraged the participants to take all that they had learned seriously adding that, any of them could be among those that would win the next award. (NAN).