NAN-AE-5
Agriculture
By Dorcas Jonah
Abuja, Nov. 16, 2017(NAN) The National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) has called on the Federal Government to mainstream women into intervention programmes in the agriculture sector.
Mrs Gloria Shoda, President of NCWS, made the call in Abuja at a Dinner and Award Night of the 1st National Workshop on the role of NCWS in Economic Diversification programmes of government.
According to her, for several decades, women have been fully involved in agricultural production at all levels.
“As a matter of fact, women have formed the backbone of the sector in Nigeria, especially in the rural areas,’’ she said.
Shoda, however, noted that the inability of many women to access opportunities in intervention programmes in agriculture was a major challenge that confronted women in the sector.
Shoda said that in the late few years, there had been an improvement in government’s effort to develop the agriculture with a view to making it next to oil sector, in revenue generation for the country.
The NCWS president noted that there had been renewed vigour and energy on the part of women to be part of the new wave of interest in agribusiness.
“There is much to gain from this sector, food security, job creation, household income and reductions of concentration on imported food.
“Importation of food has proved to be a drain on scarce foreign exchange.
“The good news is that opportunities in the processing component of agriculture offer exciting openings in ago-processing ventures.’’
Shoda called on Nigeria women to take the opportunity of the new frontier in agro-processing to be involved in the sector.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that persons and corporate bodies, totaling 33, received awards of excellence for their outstanding performance and support for women in many spheres of human endeavour.
Speaking on behalf of the awardees, Hajiya Aisha Audu, former first lady of Kog, thanked the council for the recognition and pledged the commitment of the awardees to do more to better the lives of women in the country. (NAN)
DE/DUA
Edited by Dada Ahmed