Amidst rising cost of living in the country, Anambra Governor’s wife, Nonye Soludo, has explained the need for revival of home garden tradition to help families brace the challenge.

 

Mrs Soludo, who explained this while responding to questions during one of her engagements with a women group in Awka, noted that traditional home garden practices in the past, provided a primary and regular source of diet and nutrition and reduced dependence on commercial food products which were mostly expensive.

 

She stated that the idea of home or backyard gardens is to improve families’ food supplies and to also help them make healthy food choices; in terms of eating organically grown foods.

 

Mrs Soludo also noted that economic circumstances do not completely determine healthy living practices, including the choice of what one consumes to keep the body in the best shape.

 

The Governor’s wife further dispelled the notion that eating healthy is akin to making expensive choice of food, stating that one only needs to go to the small farm behind the house to pick up what the body needs to stay right.

 

She encouraged the reintroduction of gardens around homes, noting that those who live in areas without enough land for subsistence farming purposes can adopt sack farming, which does not cost anything to set up.

 

Mrs Soludo explained that by having such farms around the house, households can have easier and healthier alternatives, boost the green environment, among other benefits.

 

The Anambra Governor’s wife, while stating that it is important for households to adopt healthy living as a family culture, stressed that the long-term gains are numerous.

 

She pointed out that by including nutrition as the first pillar of her healthy living goals, she was looking at a stage when Anambra families will prioritize nutritional values of what they eat, while family health would be greatly improved.