By Lizzy Carr
A two-day Technical Working Group meeting on the review and strengthening of the Bauchi State Agricultural Policy Framework has ended in Bauchi.
The meeting, organised by the Youth Adolescent Health Initiative and Counselling — YAHIC, under the EWoMopp project, focused on identifying practical opportunities for strengthening inclusive agricultural development, particularly for women and youths.
The meeting also marked the end of the over one-year EWoMopp project implemented across five communities in Bauchi and Dass Local Government Areas.
Executive Director of YAHIC, Miss Eswayi Polycarp, said the meeting would pave the way for a broader Technical Working Group on Agriculture, aimed at promoting ownership and ensuring stakeholders take responsibility for strengthening the sector.
She expressed confidence that the group would identify gaps in the existing agricultural policy and prioritise recommendations to improve the participation of women and youths across agricultural value chains.
Polycarp said the assessment would also document key gaps and areas requiring strengthening in the state’s agricultural policy framework.
She highlighted some achievements of the EWoMopp project, saying one hundred and sixty-five women benefited from capacity building in the cultivation, processing and branding of moringa across communities in Bauchi, Dass, Toro and Ganjuwa Local Government Areas.
She added that ninety women from Miri and Gudum Hausa communities in Bauchi Local Government Area and Badel in Dass received solar dehydrators, solar irrigation systems, oil extractors and grinding machines to support continued production.
According to her, the project also facilitated market linkages for the women and contributed to positive shifts in some social norms.
The meeting further provided an opportunity for members of the Technical Working Group to develop a sixty-day work plan and nominate leadership for the group.