As drivers of food provision in the home, women must thrive to return to the old ways of practicing gardening and farming in homes, to sustain their families.

This will not only restore agriculture to the homes to address food security, it is also capable of solving the challenges facing the agriculture sector to reduce the burden on women.

The Chief Executive Officer, Renee Golden Multiventures, Adenike Apeji, who disclosed this during the Women In Business Summit 2023, in Lagos, with the theme: “My Health & Business,” in collaboration with other women in business, said her focus was to foster women in business, collaborating to solve community problem and impacting the communities, as a means of solving food insecurity problems.

Other facilitators include – Ibidunni Layade of Dunnice Integrated Service; Marine Biologist, Dr. Ngozi Chibuko; Nutritionist & Health Coach, Ifeoluwagbemi Chukuwu; and certified physiotherapist, Damilola Samuel.

Apeji said: “Another focus of this summit is to promote healthy living. Women as the drivers of food provision in the home must thrive to return to our old ways of providing for the home to sustain our families.

“In the beginning, God planted man in the garden, according to Genesis 2 verse 18, ignoring this fact of need is actually working against the benefit of creation, let’s return the garden and we will remain healthy.

“This doesn’t exclude urban women; from rural to urban we all must bring the practice of gardening and farming to our homes. What I tried doing was to bring women together, collaborate and give back to the society, encouraging them on the fact that they can do it.

“My main aim was economic empowerment for women, but this edition I decided to give back to my society – Kosofe Local Council, in partnership with some other women who are also business owners and we came to talk about my health and my business.”

The convener noted that the choice of theme was part of preventive mechanism to bring agriculture back to the homes, either in the urban or rural areas, for people to actually know what they are eating.

“So, we gave out free seedlings, gardening kits and others to the women to go back and plant in their homes. We discussed about health benefits of herbs, we had cancer survivors in our midst, who spoke about their experiences, with basic medical counsels and the need for health insurance.

“What I really want to focus on is restoring agriculture to our homes to address food security and solving the agriculture problems, which also can come back to women. We talked about green, about reviving the nature, building eco-friendly system, it begins with what we surround our homes with and others.

All the friends I brought together were all in the business sector. That’s the brain behind the programme.

“Last year, we focused on accounting, how book keeping can actually safe the business. If you don’t know how to do book keeping accurately, it might be very difficult to scale through. This is just the theme for this year, we want to drive it home to women that there is food insecurity and these are basic little things that we can add to things we are doing in our homes and of course it will reduce that food insecurity and will also foster you to know what you are eating because you are what you eat.

“Basically, we were just talking to women about their health, we are not talking from the angle of cure but from the angle of preventive mechanisms and home gardening, basically that’s my business, I am in the agric sector, but I am in the value chain.

The Kosofe Local Council Chairman, Moyosore Ogunlewe, represented his Special Adviser on Special Duties and APC Youth Leader, lauded the convener and the programme, noting that home gardening is the way to go.