KHYBER: The Khyber agriculture department in collaboration with National Integrated Development Association (Nida)Pakistanhasinitiated a kitchen gardening project in Sipah area of Bara with special focus on imparting skills to local womenfolk to financially empower them.

The director of agriculture, Ziaul Islam Dawar, told Dawn that his department would provide training to 1,000 families, comprising 563 women and 437 men, in 40 training sessions with every session spanning over two days.

He said that those families would also be provided with free seeds of at least eight types of seasonalvegetables along with fertilisers and necessary farming tools on completion of their training.

He said that Sipah area was selectedfor the first phase of kitchen gardening project after conducting an assessment survey along with finding the possibility of the success of the scheme and adoptability of locals with the activity.

Mr Dawar said that the idea of kitchen gardening was adopted after a realisation about rapid shrinking of agricultural land due to increasing construction activities. `Kitchen gardening is comparatively easy, cheap and productive with effective utilisation of small farms inside a residential compound,` he added.

Agriculture officer Abid Shah said that the purpose of the activity was to establish and promote garlic cultivation on 40 small farms to enhance food security and integrate farmers into existing value chains.He said that the activity intended to provide selected farmers with technical training, inputs and assistance to improve production and market integration.

Female agriculture officer Mussarrat Shaheen, who was assigned the task of interacting with local women selected for training, told Dawn that Bara women showed keen interest in the training as they were already involved in kitchen gardening on a limited scale but with no expert knowledge about it.

She said that Bara women had passed through some difficult and trying times during the militants` occupation of the area and were in need of engagement in some healthy and productive activities within the four walls of their houses.

Ms Shaheen said that those womenwere taught about drip irrigation, water conservation and its proper utilisation along with proper use of quality seeds and timely addition of different fertilisers to their vegetable crops.

`These trainings will give them financial empowerment along with fresh organic vegetables as such quality food is very essential for their health,` she said.

Local farmers also appreciated the initiative and said that militancy-affected families of Bara were in dire need of such productive activity.

Sher Ahmad, a local farmer of Yousaf Talab area in Sipah, told Dawn that prior to the training, they had very limited knowledge about soil nature, seed quality and proper use of fertilisers along with irrigation timing of their crops.

-Correspondent