ARDS begins quarterly training of women in tomato paste processing

By Stanley Onyekwere

In a bid to mitigate wastes during harvest seasons, the Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat (ARDS) of the FCT Administration has commenced training of women in tomato processing and preservation.
ARDS Mandate Secretary, Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim during the training yesterday, in Abuja, said the initiative would help to control tomatoes waste during harvest and post 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 total of 300 women drawn from Nyanya, Karu, Jikwoyi, Kurudu and Karshi among others were trained in tomato paste processing and preservation in the first quarter, adding that there has been tremendous gains arising from the exercise since its inception, after he assumed office as last year.
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.