Agriculture

Food crisis: Stakeholders harp on needs to invest in women, agric mechanisation

Stakeholders in the agricultural sector have urged the government at all levels to invest in mechanising agriculture, as it is a major route out of the food crisis the country is facing.

The stakeholders made this call during a one-day seminar on Women for Food Security in Abuja with the theme: ‘Sustainability and Development in Empowering Women for Food Security.’

For the Executive Director of Captain Agri Machinery EXIM LLP, Sunish Shah, there will not be high productivity if farming is not mechanised.

“If you want to have productivity, you need to mechanise agriculture. It is very simple logic. As far as Africa is concerned, farmers do not follow the rules of crop farming and do not mechanise farming. They only rely on labour and they do not get precision, which is why the productivity is very low. And they rely on lands that are not so fertile.”

Patricia Stan-Dioka, Chief Executive Officer of Mela Chiyoma Pat Limited, explained in her own submission that women play a key role in value chain development; hence, their exclusion from agriculture will spell doom for the sector.

“Inspiration stemmed from the fact that women work tirelessly without getting much. I also noticed that with women, we can do so many things. That is what gave me the inspiration.

“With women, we can achieve a lot in our country. And when I look at how the women are piloting it in India, I say that if these people can do it in India, we can do it here. I have stayed in India, and I know their terrain.

“Again, I am an agriculturist. I read about agricultural engineering and food security. We need to sit up because I know what it takes to boost food production,” she noted.

Furthermore, Stan-Dioka said the “aim is to eradicate poverty from our country. If you look at our country, you do not need a soothsayer to tell you that there is hunger in the land.

“Our aim is to use what we have to get what we want, which is using agriculture to boost our economy so that we will have a very good and healthy environment. That is why I am so eager to make sure that we reclaim our mandate of becoming the giant of Africa.”

Muhammad Sani Garba, Executive Chairman, Business Visas and Training Limited, urged Nigeria to borrow from India’s progress in mechanisation to advance the country’s agricultural sector.

“You can see that what we have in Nigeria is that smallholder farmers are women. In this current time, we can bring in the youth. If the women succeed, definitely the youth will also be engaged, and they will succeed,” he added.

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