Nkechinyere Ewa-Okpara
A group of women in Agriculture known as Smallholder Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria, Ebonyi Chapter has identified delay in the release of farm inputs from the government, lack of access to Agricultural credits, and lack of storage facilities, among others, as contributory factors to food insecurity in the country.
The women farmers made this known in AAbakalikion Monday at a one-day stakeholders interactive meeting and Agricultural product exhibition as part of activities marking the World Food Day 2024 celebration in the state.
World Food Day, a day set aside to promote global awareness towards the eradication of hunger, malnutrition and poverty
is observed on October 16 every year.
The program was put together by a Nongovernmental Organization basedin Afikpo, Participatory Development Alternatives under her project, Scaling Up Public Investment in Agriculture, with support from Actionaid-Nigeria.
Chinyere Agbafor, the State Coordinator of SWOFON and, Nnenna Ibiam the public relations officer, further identified climate change, insecurity in farms, land saturation and unhealthy political interferences as also a major impediments to achieving food security in the country.
They, however, appealed to state and federal governments to address the challenges to save the country from hunger and untold hardship.
Ibiam said: ” It is not really that farmers are not doing much, but things are changing with time.
“When you talk of climate change, it is one of the contributors; you also talk about insecurity and other internal issues like late distribution of farm inputs.
“In some places, women no longer go to farms for fear of being raped or even killed by bandits.
“Generally, the system is changing whereby land is no longer yielding her increase because, in most places, land is getting saturated.
“Politics is also one big factor affecting us because of undue interference in processes by office holders and inconsistencies in policies and programmes occasioned by frequent changes in government.”
Ugochi Joseph, the Program Manager of PDA, said the target of the meeting, which brought together the women farmers, the State Ministry of Agriculture and the CSOs, was to fashion collective ways of achieving food security in the state particularly, and the nation in general.
She advocated for intensive training for the women farmers on Agroecology which would build their capacity in the use of organic fertilizers in food production noting that smallholder Women farmers stem from the fact that about 80% of farmers in Nigeria’s rural communities are mainly women.
She also urged the government to increase budgetary allocation to Agriculture and give specific and greater attention to Smallholder Women farmers as gateways to achieving food security in the country.
Stakeholders in agriculture who attended the event commended the Smallholder Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria for their contributions to food sustainability in the state.
Charles Okorie, Director of Nutrition, State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Director of Extension Services, Ebonyi State Agricultural Development Programme, Regina Oroke, in their submission, extolled the activities of the Smallholder Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria and the PDA, which has a boost to food provision in Ebonyi homes.
Oroke said, “We appreciate the efforts of the SWOFON and PDA in eradicating hunger and poverty, which is at an alarming rate in Nigeria.
“The PDA has remained a great partner in training, mentoring and monitoring of Smallholder Women farmers in the state, and availing them the needed assistance to ensure there is food on the table for the people.
“These efforts have also boosted the economy of the women and the state while prospecting food security in the state and Nigeria in general.”
While the nutritioniest Okorie who represented the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Nkechinyere Iyioku-Ezeani, said Governor Nwifuru was committed to improving Investment in Agriculture.
“We want to assure you that the present government in the state is committed to eradicating hunger and poverty in the state”, he added.
He urged the women not to relent in providing food for the people pointing out that you can’t differentiate poverty from malnutrition but with the contributions of the women farmers especially in the rural areas there could be a chane .