Food Security: Gashua Varsity trains local farmers on Greenhouse farming in Yobe
A team of Researchers from Federal University Gashua (FUGA) led by the lead Researcher, Dr. Ibrahim Ahmed Jajere, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), has trained local farmers in Gashua and environs on the importance and role of greenhouse and Drip irrigation farming on the sustainable livelihood of rural families in Northeast Nigeria.
The research covered three major components: Evaluation of Farmer’s socio-economic disposition, their knowledge and practices with regard to irrigation water and soil management, field research on water productivity and impact on soil quality using traditional and introduced irrigation scenarios.
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The exercise also aims at creating greenhouse farming technology awareness as an alternative method to supplement/overtake outdoor growing of vegetables to adopt greenhouse farming to mitigate high input vegetable Production of soil and to motivate young farmers to be involved in vegetable Production in the Yobe basin to strengthen food security and sustainable livelihoods.
Jajere noted that, the training is to raise awareness on the importance of irrigation farming that would improve water productivity, sustain the land and improve farm production to fight food insecurity in the region.
According to him the project will also build the capacity of many farmers on greenhouse technology which can be scaled-up in the post-project period for sustainable vegetable production and increase in income generation for enhanced livelihood of the local farmers in the region that is bedevilled by the activities of the insurgency for years.
In his paper titled: “The Role of Greenhouse and Drip Irrigation farming on the Sustainable livelihood of Rural Families, Dr. Ishaku James Dantata, posited that greenhouse farming and vertical farming are becoming timely and important in fighting food security because of the continuous increase in population while the available land for farming is becoming scarce.
According to Dantata, the primary purpose of a greenhouse is to create a manageable, controlled and favourable environment for plant growth, allowing farmers to extend the growing season, protect plants from pest, harsh weather conditions and optimize yields.
He said Drip irrigation is the most efficient method of delivering water and nutrients to greenhouse tunnel and with proper management of the drop system, there could be an over eighty percent water saving.
He added that drip irrigation is a sustainable irrigation technique used in all climatic zones of the world including very dry areas where water is highly scarce and get evaporated easily because of high atmospheric temperatures.
Dr. Ibrahim Alhassan, in his paper titled: “GREENHOUSE FARMING IN YOBE BASIN-A CASE STUDY”, averred that with drip irrigation system 10,000 -14,000 plants of tomato can be cultivated on on acre of farmland and this can compare to about 4,000 plant of tomatoes cultivated through the use of rain fed cultivation.
According to him in 8 weeks they harvested a total of 600kg of tomatoes using the greenhouse farming.
He said regularly after every 4 to 5 days an average of 60- 70 kg of fresh tomato is being harvested.
” Introducing the greenhouse on a small scale will demonstrate how it brings about increase in diets for improve children and women healthy nutrition, household income and profit,” he said.
He also said that the greenhouse farming if practice would result in higher percentage of crop survival than do traditional open space vegetable farming and uses all inputs and water efficiently and ultimately maximizes the land Utilisation.
Farmers who attended the 5 days training expressed their readiness to put in practice the knowledge acquired during the training and thanked the trainers for their efforts in bringing succour to them at this crucial time of the need to diversify farming by embracing modern farming techniques.
