Akatsi (VR)-Ghana, Nov. 01, GNA – The Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD) unit of the Akatsi South Department of Agriculture in the Volta Region has engaged Home Economics students of the Akatsi Senior High Technical School on nutrition.
The two-day workshop in collaboration with the Akatsi South Municipal Nutrition Officers and supported by staff of the Home Economics Department of the school seeks to enlighten the students on the need to improve their nutrition.
Madam Lydia A. Akum, the WIAD Officer in the area disclosed that it was important to bring the activity to the doorsteps of the students to help them understand the need for enhancing their nutrition.
“A student who eats more nutritional food is a healthier and more productive student,” she said.
Nutrition-based cooking and processing demonstrations, which include the use of the nutrient-fortified orange flesh sweet potatoes that has been developed from the Crops Research Institute, forms part of the workshop.
An example of the processed demonstration is the fortification of gari to improve its nutritional value such as, Soya- Gari, Tumeric Gari, Ginger Gari, Moriga Gari, and others.
The facilitators told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that apart from using the Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP) to prepare normal dishes, it could be used to prepare bank, chips, bread, ice cream, and others.
Mr Charles Grunitzky, the Akatsi South Municipal Director of the Department of Agriculture who attended the event, appealed to the students to encourage their parents to practise the new trend as an alternative source of income.
The WIAD unit educates and teaches women on how to improve their nutrition in their homes as well as organising programmes that empowers women by equipping them with skills that could help them create jobs for themselves.
Mr Richard Kudiabor, the Municipal Crops Officer, Mr Foli Divine, Agriculture Extension Officer, Setsoafia Selasi, Head of Home Economics Department as well as Akatsi South Municipal Officers and some teachers of AKAST, took part in the event.
