Emergency
By Felicia Imohimi
Abuja, June 19, 2024(NAN) Smallholder Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON) has urged the FCT administration to declare state of emergency on insecurity in order to ensure safety of farmers.
Mrs Olabisi Ogedengbe, SWOFON Coordinator, Gwagwalada, FCT, made the call at a news conference organised by WSOFON on Wednesday in Abuja.
The conference was tagged “Emerging challenges affecting smallholder women farmers in the FCT.’’
According to Ogedengbe, such declaration will address looming food crisis and inflation in the territory.
Ogedengbe, who decried the alarming insecurity and farmer-herders clashes in FCT, said the challenges had made smallholder women farmers vulnerable and finding difficulties to access their farmlands and incurring losses.
She identified the security challenge as a contributing factor to the current hike in cost of food among others in the country.
Ogedengbe alerted that the livelihood conditions of most smallholder women farmers were deteriorating, reaching a point where they struggled to provide food, access healthcare, infrastructure and afford their children’s education.
“The conference is to draw the attention of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and Nigerian Government to the impact of the challenges affecting smallholder women farmers in FCTA.
“In light of the escalating economic challenges and the concurrent food crises and inflation, SWOFON deemed it imperative to highlight the severe effects on smallholder women farmers in the territory.’’
Ogedengbe said recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics, indicated that the food inflation rate in January 2024 was 35.41per cent on a year-on-year basis.
“The figure is 11.10per cent points higher compared to the rate of 24.32per cent recorded last year January.
“Similarly, the Cable news in May 2024, reported that FCT experienced food inflation rate at 38.38per cent
“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis started with COVID -19 pandemic and exacerbated by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, oil and fat among others,’’ she said.
She called on FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and the FCTA to deliberately invest massively in agriculture to ensure food and nutrition security.
Mrs Comfort Sunday, SWOFON Coordinator, FCT Chapter, identified other challenges faced by the women as barriers to land ownership and control.
Sunday said most times some of the farmlands were taken over by government for commercial purposes thereby limiting women farmers ability to invest in and benefit from agricultural activities.
She frowned at the disparities in access to and release of quality seeds, fertilisers, water pumps, solar borehole, Nafsak sprayers and other inputs between male and female farmers.
According to her, the disparities make it difficult for women farmers to engage in dry seasoning farming, impacting in low agricultural production and food insecurity.
Sunday said women farmers were disproportionately affected by climate change impacts such as erratic rainfall, droughts and soil degradation describing the challenge as threaten food security and livelihoods.
She said the farmers lacked resources to implement adaptive measures to environmental challenges threatening food security and livelihoods.
The coordinator called for reforms to land tenure policies to ensure equitable access to land for women, including legal support and advocacy for land rights.
“There should be timely release of farm inputs to smallholder women farmers by all tiers of government for this rainy season farming.
“Federal Government and FCTA should as a matter of urgency provide subsidies and support to our farmers for easy access to inputs such as quality early maturing seeds, seedlings, feeds, organic fertilisers, and pesticides.
“This will help increase food production, improve farmers’ livelihoods, and stimulate economic growth in the agricultural sector, “(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
FUA/CJ/
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Edited by Chijioke Okoronkwo
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