Food Security: Women farmers urge government to provide agricultural support services

By our correspondent, Lafia

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They stated this at a press conference organised by Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), in collaboration with Ogbonge Women, Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), and Association of Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN) and other women organisations on Tuesday in Lafia.

Mrs Ruth Joseph, SWOFON, harped on the need for government to build capacity of women through empowerment and access to information as related to climate change, new improved seeds among others.

He said women farmers in the rural areas suffered a great lost in farming activities due to lack of adequate information on weather outlook, climate change, new techniques and lack of access to modern tools.

“I want to appeal to the government to engage more extension workers to reach out to women farmers, build our capacities in the areas of modern farming, women are had working and ready to contribute their quotas to food security,” she said.

Mrs Justina Bala, from ASSAPIN said women were vulnerable to climate change in all ramifications, and urged government to support them to build resilient against climate change impact.

“As a small holder women farmers, whenever you are hit by impact of climate change it left us helpless, when you farm is being washed away it affects your livelihood, it makes the cause of living high because items in the market go up,” she said.

Patience Oomegho, a volunteer community based Agric extension, said land tenure system was one of the most serious obstacle that decreases agriculture and income generation of rural women farmers in Nigeria.

She said women ability and right to use and own a land influence they capacities as producers, noting that access to land was paramount to women whose sources of livelihood solely depend on agriculture.

“So, we are saying that government at all levels and traditional rulers should look into this problem as regards to owning a land by women, they should evolve policies that will enable women to have a land given that women contributed a lot to food security,” she said.

Mrs Patricia Onoja, From Ogbonge Women, tasked government to remove bottleneck on loan for women farmers, and also demanded increased budget allocation for agriculture and interest free loan to increase their output.

Other issues raised by women farmers is security, herdsman and kidnappers, they called on government to provide adequate security for women especially rural women farmers.

Speaking earlier, Mr Ango Adamu, Executive Secretary,YMCA Mada Hills, said the press conference was in line with “Together Against Poverty” (TAP2) project supported by Oxfam Africa.

According to him, the objective is to draw the attention of Government and relevant MDAs to support women farmers achieve their dreams through farming and other agriculture value chain activities to improve their livelihood, income, increased resilience and be heard.

“It’s also about recognising the role played by women farmers to food security despite challenges of inadequate and discriminatory tendencies around farm input distribution, inadequate access to land and other agricultural support services,” he said.