GEF, UNDP Train Women on Goat Farming in Gombe State

The Global Environment Facility, GEF, and the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP project on food security and climate-smart agriculture has trained about 30 women beneficiaries of goat donation on dairy goat production. The women are representatives of a larger group of beneficiaries, whom the project gave as goats to in five communities of Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State, so as to empower them economically and also enhance food security not just in Gombe State. Speaking with Voice of Nigeria in Patuwana, a community which is hosting the project’s Agric Resource Centre for Kaltungo Local Government Area of the state, the Consultant, who is also the Project Technical Advisor in Abuja, Dr. Garba Saleh, said the training followed the distribution of the dairy-goats to 25 groups of women in the communities, under the livelihood support program of the project. Dr. Saleh said the livelihood support program was focused on improving the livelihood of project communities, which would subsequently improve food security in Nigeria, especially in the areas of meat and milk. He said the training was being organized by the project to enhance knowledge on the dairy goat, it’s rearing, feeding, hygiene, and health, of which if the smallholder’s farmers make use of, it would improve their rearing capacity. Dr. Saleh said even though the project intended to improve family nutrition, because of the milk that would be extracted from the goat to feed and enhance the health of babies and young children. “It will help to improve the dietary of the baby. So, that is why we insist on these dairy goats. And also these goats, it is our own indigenous goats that we can utilize and manage so that they give us milk. That is enough milk with which we can feed our young ones and also the animals can be used for improving the livelihood of the beneficiaries,” Dr Garba said. He said after the training, some of the women raised concerns on some health issues of the goats, of which he directed them to always seek the guidance of veterinarians whenever the need would arise. “Because they may not know these drugs, they may not know their importance, but once they can contact the veterinarians, they can treat their goats effectively. So, that is why I asked them to contact the nearest veterinarian for veterinary advice,” Dr Saleh said. He called on the beneficiaries to use the opportunity given to them through the training to manage the goats effectively, for maximum benefits, especially in the areas of livelihood and nutrition. The UNPD/GEF project is resident at the state Agricultural Development Programme of the state Ministry of Agriculture and implemented in ten communities of the local government areas of two local government areas of Balanga and Kaltungo. The Desk Officer of the Project in Gombe State, Mr Jonathan Maina, said the livelihood support program on dairy goats picked women, because of their loyalty and zeal to manage such ventures, by adding value to the economic livelihood packages. “In this part of the world, we don’t much like milk from goat, we like that of cows. But we are teaching them that the milk from goat is actually more nutritive than that of cows and as such, we should imbibe or learn how to use the goat production. And I am happy that the consultant has done the needful, by stressing how they are going to milk their goats, how they are going to process their milk for consumption,” Mr Jonathan said. He said the training was a train-the-trainer course, to enable the women representatives and extension workers present to in turn go back and train other beneficiaries in their communities during their monthly meetings. Mr Jonathan said a training manual was available and would be given to them as a referral guide in the course of executing the project in their communities. He said the overall objective of the livelihood program was to ensure that every member of the group owned goats at the end of the project because as they reproduce and multiply, members of the group would get to own theirs. Some of the beneficiaries expressed their gratitude to the GEF/UNDP Project for the program they were benefiting from. Mrs Repeta Buba is one of the beneficiaries of the training and she said she learned a lot about taking care of goats, their feeding, how they would protect the goats so that they would be healthy and in turn produce milk that would help in feeding children with good nutrition. For Mrs Celina Sanusi, she said she was going home with the knowledge on how to take care of the goats given to her, especially how not to expose the goat in cold weather conditions. “I was taught how not to confine it in a small area because its nature to roam about for good health. I also learned how and where to go to look for medical attention for the goat whenever it becomes sick, especially from veterinarians, who I will call to come and attend to the goat by themselves and know the exact problem the goat is facing. I also prefer the goat because of its significance in reproducing twice in one year and if I take care of it and it reproduces, other women will benefit from this, while its milk can help babies, because of its numerous vitamins, which will help the baby,” Mr Sanusi said. Mrs Zipporah Musa said she learned so many things, such as how to take off the goats given to her group, its fertility, how to produce and process the nutritious milk for the benefit of children. Mrs Fani Fadason from Kunge said she learned how to rear goats and everything about it. She believes women were chosen in rearing goats because they were better than men in that aspect.   Source: VON