By Olamide Tejuoso
Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has become one of recipients of the “OBE” initiative aimed at ensuring households produce their own food. The initiative called OBE, a Yoruba word that literarily translates as ‘soup’, and had been inaugurated in Ondo State in 2021, according to the initiator, is a project aimed at equipping every household with valuable information and resources on how to grow all foodstuff they need for soup, right in their compound.
Speaking at the launch, Mrs. Tomi Olatoye listed the advantages of OBE initiative as ensuring food security for each household, food sustainability scheme from one household to the other, source of employment for women and the youths, a formidable source of poverty alleviation, providing access to fresh and varieties of vegetables, creating streams of income for households while excess harvest can be sold in neighbourhood markets, among other benefits. Olatoye, who is also the the Vice-Chairperson of Ondo State Agricultural Commodities Association (OSACA), hinted that the launch of OBE in Oyo State would also set the tone for many more to come in other states of Nigeria.
