By Magnus Emuji
ASABA/Nigeria: The Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Augustine Oghoro has said the partnership bond between the state government and UNICEF is yielding success and will be sustained.
Oghoro stated this in Asaba while declaring open a one-day capacity building workshop on school based organic farms and gardens organised by Delta State Committee on Food and Nutrition.
The workshop was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education for 30 Agricultural Science teachers drawn from 30 public schools across the state.
The permanent secretary commended UNICEF for what he described as ingenuity in the sponsorship of the workshop, which he noted was aimed at making people to always eat the right amount of nutrients in food meals.
He stressed that educating teachers on the importance of food nutrition was a critical step towards achieving UNICEF goals.
Oghoro recalled that the effective collaboration with UNICEF had resulted in several projects and programmes sponsored by it in the state such as the fight against malnutrition and ending open defecation among others.
He advised the trainees to channel the knowledge gained to establish school-based organic farms and gardens, explaining that the training would be of immense benefit for school authorities to create food and generate income for their schools.
Earlier in a goodwill message, the Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Economic Planning, Mr. Frank Isume said that the State Food and Nutrition Committee (SFNC) was committed to realising its terms of reference
The permanent secretary, who was represented by the Director of Overseas Development Agency (ODA), Mrs. Martina Amromanoh, stressed on the need for every individual to embrace effective food and nutrition.
For his part, the Secretary of Delta State Committee on Food and Nutrition, Mr. Benson Etchie added that the creation of the committee at the national level was as a result of the worsening nutrition indices across the country.
He said that the SFNC was aimed at resolving issues bordering on food and nutrition in the state, just as he pledged the committee’s commitments towards achieving results.
Etchie said that the goal of the committee was to obtain optimum nutritional status for all Deltans with emphasis on vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, women, elderly and groups with special needs, and evaluate feeding patterns in boarding schools in the state, among others.
In his remarks, the focal person, UNICEF/SCFN, Dr. Michael Emeshili, who is an assistant director in the School Department of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, disclosed that the state government had mandated his ministry in conjunction with the ODA to ensure that organic farms were established in schools.
Emeshili noted that organic farms would be a veritable source of income generation for schools in the state, and that every sector in education would be involved in organic farms.
There was a presentation of lectures on Adolescents Nutrition and Challenges in Schools as well as Principles and Practices of Poultry and Arable Crops Production in Schools by Mrs. Olubunmi Agwai from the State Ministry of Health and Prof. Felix Achoja represented by Dr. Oluwaseun Robinson from Delta State University, Abraka.
