By Daniel Tyokua
The Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced training of women in tomato processing and preservation.
Mandate Secretary of the secretariat, Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim during the training on Tuesday in Abuja, said the initiative would help to control tomatoes waste during harvest seasons.
Ibrahim who was represented by Haruna Umar, the Acting Director planning, research and statistics of the secretariat, said three hundred women will be trained in each quarter across the six area councils.
He revealed that 300 women drawn from Nyanya, Karu, Jikwoyi, Kurudu and Karshi among others were trained in tomato paste processing and preservation in the first quarter.
The training, he said will equip the women with cost effective techniques borrowed from Japan to facilitate the attainment of food and nutrition security.
He noted that the training which is a train the trainer structured programme will ensure that each of the participants is able to share her knowledge with at least ten residents in her neighbourhood.
While demonstrating the process of tomato processing and preservation to the women, the lead trainer, Oladoja Margaret noted that the main target of the training is to teach the women how to prevent economic waste.
According to her, it will enable them buy tomato in large quantities while it is cheap, process and store it against tomato off-season when it will become extremely expensive.
