ONAF Promotes Home Farming, Empowers Onitsha Residents with ‘Ụgbọ Azuno’ Initiative

The Onitsha Advance Foundation, ONAF, has trained residents of Onitsha on home farming, popularly known as Ụgbọ Azuno, as part of efforts to promote food security, healthy living and household self reliance.

The workshop, held at Ime Obi, Onitsha, brought together indigenes and non indigenes for practical training in vegetable cultivation, home gardening and small scale livestock production.

The organiser, Ms Rita Melifeonwu, encouraged participants to embrace home farming as a practical way to produce nutritious food, reduce household expenses and improve family health.

A representative of the Home Economics Teachers Association of Nigeria, HETAN, Mrs Nkiru Odikesieme, said every household could practise farming regardless of available space, using sacks, bags, plastic containers and other improvised materials.

She also cautioned against the excessive use of artificial fertilisers in vegetable production and encouraged families to grow their own food while adopting healthy methods of food preparation.

Participants were also trained in small scale livestock production, including rabbit, snail, fish, poultry and goat rearing. At the end of the workshop, they received starter packs containing vegetable seedlings, cassava stems and planting bags to begin their own home farms.

Beneficiaries said the Ụgbọ Azuno initiative would help reduce feeding costs, improve household nutrition and encourage healthier living in their communities.