Small-scale women farmers in Kwara state under the aegis of the Small Scale Women’s Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), as well as other stakeholders in agriculture, have asked the state government to give them agricultural produce as palliatives.
The women, who spoke during a stakeholders consultative meeting on the 2024 agriculture sector budget in the state of Ilorin, said that smallholder farmers feed the nation with their produce, while the large-scale farmers only export and distribute to corporate organizations.
The Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), SUPIA Budget Committee Group in collaboration with the Kwara State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kwara State Ministry of Planning and Economy Development, Kwara State Agricultural Development Programme, Kwara State Ministry of Women Affairs, FADAMA/NG-CARES, Rural Access and Agriculture Marketing Project (RAAMP), organised the one-day stakeholders consultative meeting on the 2024 agriculture budget.
The leader of the women farmers’ group, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Abosede Anifowose, who lamented that they are not given due recognition by the state government, said that government should provide training and retraining programmes, as well as agriculture input.
Mrs Anifowose also said that the rice and beans palliative is temporary, adding the availability of land and supply of farm implements by the government would assist women farmers in increasing agricultural produce.
This according to her would go a long way in reducing food insufficiency and scarcity in the state.
“We don’t want to use crude farms implements like hoes and cutlasses again. Government should assist women farmers across the 16 local governments of the state with gender-friendly machines like planters and tractors. If we have all these implements there will be boost in agriculture produce from our farmers. We don’t want to be given rice as palliative to mitigate the effects of fuel subsidy removal, we want acres of land from government apart from the farm inputs”.
The meeting, which had the new state commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Oloruntoyosi Thomas, and her counterpart in Planning and Economic Development, represented by Mr. Ajayi Matthew, in attendance, also saw the women
requesting for specific budgetary allocation for women in agriculture, especially smallholder women farmers.
According to the communique issued at the end of the programme and signed by the coordinator of the CCEPE and the SUPIA Project,
Abdurrahman Akindele Ayuba, the meeting recommended that the state government should prioritize increased budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector to ensure increased food production and reduce hunger and poverty.
Other recommendations include, “To ensure transparency and accountability, all agricultural-related budget activities should be housed in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
“There should be adequate budget provision to support organic farming, e.g., provision of eco-friendly inputs, in order to adapt the state agricultural system to eco-friendly practices and operations.
“We seek the inclusion of farmers with disabilities in the state’s agriculture budget planning and processes.
“Handholding farmers (women, youths, and farmers living with disability cooperatives) to access existing CBN agricultural credit facilities through a team or consultancy firm which prepares their business proposals, interfaces, and negotiates with BOA, Bank of Industry, NIRSAL, commercial and microfinance banks
“We seek the inclusion of Agriculture CSOs and women farmers in the Agriculture budget planning and processes of the state.
“We recommend continuous training for women farmers on modern farming tools and best agricultural practices so as to increase productivity and enhance the agriculture value chain.
“We recommend that the government should outline various programmes targeted at youth empowerment/employment in Agriculture and make vibrant budgetary allocation.
“The State Government should partner with relevant stakeholders such as the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) for fabrication/production/purchase of hand-held tools for Smallholder women farmers. E.g. Mini tractors, weeders, harvesters, planters, etc.
“Kwara Agro-Mall should be reactivated to accommodate research and development base station for the State agriculture sector.
“Farmers, especially smallholder women farmers, should be consulted in the design of inputs distribution model and actual implementation
“Distribution of farm inputs should be done timely and directly to the stakeholders at the grassroots rather than State level so it can get to the targeted beneficiaries.
We recommend that M& E of projects and programmes should be sustained and improved upon in subsequent years with the involvement of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs} and farmers’ group for effective results in budget implementation.
Agriculture interventions and support to farmers should not politicized
The State Ministry of Agriculture should deploy a unified and continuously updated system for collecting farmer data.
We call on the State Government to prioritize the agriculture sector and its programs, especially at this critical time of food insecurity and economic situation in the state.
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