On Thursday 5th and Friday 6th October, 2023, the Family Farming program of Lagos Food Bank recently held a 2 day intensive training session at the food bank to equip its newly enrolled beneficiaries with adequate knowledge and practical skills in establishing sustainable backyard farms and an opportunity for the participants to share their experiences, challenges, and learn best practices in agriculture.
The training was focused on Vegetable production (Olericulture), Snail production (Heliculture), Poultry production and Agribusiness entrepreneurship as these are the primary focus of the program to promote food and financial security of the beneficiaries. This also included practical demonstration sessions on all small scale agricultural production as the beneficiaries were engaged in a hands-on session during the training.
The founder of Lagos Food Bank, Dr Michael Sunbola who was present at the training session, spoke on the benefits of the program and encouraged the participants to put in their best efforts while enrolled in the program. Also present at the training was a discharged beneficiary of the program Madam Kuranga as she testified to being one of the first beneficiaries of the program. She stated that “she had expanded her poultry farm and also expressed her gratitude to the food bank for their continued support after receiving her certificate.”
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Caroline stated that “the training has helped her to understand better how to start up a backyard farm as her previous experience did not yield profit”. This was the plight of some of the participants as they were grateful for the opportunity to learn from the food bank’s team.