The Small Holder Women Farmers and Girls of Nigeria, SWOFON in conjunction with ActionAid Nigeria has called for the protection of the rights of women farmers in the country.
SWOFON made the call in a street walk in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with support by ActionAid Nigeria to demand for their rights as women farmers, stating that women contribute about 70 to 80% of the food consumed in Nigeria, yet they are still largely neglected.
Hajara Ramson, Programme Director of SWOFON, said women farmers still live in abject poverty and called on the Federal Government to come to their aide in order to ensure food security for the country.
Ramson said they want increased access for women farmers to agricultural services, equality for all gender, zero violence against women and girls in agriculture and its chain services.
Ogechi Okebugwu, programme coordinator, explained that small holder women farmers are the major producers of agricultural produce, making up to 70 to 80% of the agricultural labour force but unfortunately their needs are not met as much as it should. This, according to her, leads to low productivity, which, in turn, affects their livelihood.
She said, “We would like to see how government will begin to increase funding for the agricultural sector, focusing special attention on small holder women farmers and girls, bringing them into consideration in terms of budgetary allocation and bringing up programs that are friendly for the small holder women farmers.” That is why, she explained further, “This campaign is sponsored by Action Aids to see how this important agricultural group can be appropriately covered in terms of budgetary allocation-talking about the 10% allocation to the agriculture budget , which has not been consistently followed through, as it keeps fluctuating from 3 to 4.5% sometimes, but has never climbed to the 10%, as was signed to in the Malibu Declaration.”
The apparent nonchalant attitude of government was what led the farmers to decide to “ present our charter of demands to the office of the minister of agriculture, honorable Abubakar Kyari and we are hoping for a positive feedback”, in the hope of getting a [positive feedback from the government.
