Many communities in Nigeria are vulnerable and underserved because they do not have access to basic amenities like potable water, accessible road, quality education facilities, hospitals and others. This is because the government has failed to provide infrastructure development at the local government level due to corruption and other bottlenecks, forcing most community members and their families to depend on farming as a means of livelihood. Families in these communities are often large and poor, and for them, the higher number of children a family has, the more hands available to help with farming activities. This is largely due to ignorance, but this also means more mouths to feed and a higher amount for family upkeep. Being mostly uneducated and restricted by culture and religion, the women and wives also do not have control over the number of children they prefer to birth, because the men and husbands make this body autonomous decision for the wives and hardly support family planning options. There is also the challenge of the lack of knowledge for the women, that they have sexual and reproductive health rights and body autonomy, that they can visit a hospital and get quality sexual and reproductive health information and services and the challenge of unavailable medical facilities where they can get these sexual and reproductive health services and information. These and many other complicated factors keep community members perpetually poor and many children out of school, with no means of achieving a better future than their parents through quality education.
The community farmers put in efforts within their means on the farm with the hope that the harvest will be sufficient to feed, cloth, cover medical bills, school fees and other expenses, but this is hardly the case. Oftentimes, the community lands experience soil degradation, erosion and the risk of floods, due to continuous use, and the poor farmers who can afford it, in a bid to increase their yield in the face of land degradation, buy cheap environmentally harmful chemicals for fertilizer and pesticides, which further destroys the soil, give less yield, leading to food insecurity and a high rate of poverty and malnutrition. The environment also suffers from the impact of harmful farming practices.
The Anneozeng Ogozi Aid Foundation (AOAF), in her continuous efforts to create solutions to community and environmental challenges, launched the Agricultural and environmental intervention project to help mitigate the impact of poverty facing farmers in 2 communities (Ebom and Usumutong) in Cross River State while preserving the environment by phasing out the use of harmful chemicals and replacing with bio-friendly manure and pesticides made from agricultural waste. This intervention promotes the sustainable development goals: 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good health and Wellbeing), 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 10 (Reduced Inequality), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action), and 16 (Partnerships to Achieve the Goals).
AOAF kicked off the project at Ebom community with 54 beneficiaries (30 females and 24 males) and Usumutong communities with 36 beneficiaries (20 women and 16 men) in Cross River State. The highly inclusive project engaged beneficiaries from start to finish, on modern farming techniques of farming rice with improved seed that guarantees high yield at 200-300% while ensuring environmental preservation. The project also featured sensitization sessions that taught community members about practical climate change actions.
AOAF will be replicating the agriculture and environment intervention project in many more vulnerable communities.