Some women farmers in Jos, the Plateau State capital, have said it has been impossible for them to access the federal government’s agriculture fund. The women said they have been marginalised by government agencies.

Operating under an organisation known as Small-Scale Women Farmers of Nigeria (SWOFON), Plateau State chapter, the women growers said they were aware government launched a dedicated fund reserved for agricultural activities to be accessed through loans, grants or aids to farmers.

The state president of SWOFON, Mrs. Mary Afan said, “As women farmers, it has been impossible to access the federal government agric fund; there is hardly adequate information to women on how to access the fund and other advantages provided by both state and federal government.”

At a seminar, the group said, “SWOFON is a coalition of smallholder women farmers who formed themselves into cooperatives groups across the country, who are engaged in agricultural activities especially farming. Women farmers are not often involved in decision making and policy formulation at federal, state and local government levels, which is why women are not carried along in agric programmes in the country.

“Agriculture, apart from the fact that it contributes 23% to Nigerian GDP, and also provides 88% of non-oil earnings, it remains the largest employer of labour with 2/3 of the country’s population. Women constitute 60-80% of the agro labour force in the country, yet women farmers have no access services of credit facilities, inputs, training, advise, technology, crop insurance, etc.

“Women farmers are hardly considered to be given allocation of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, feeds, seeds and seedlings. No capital, poor awareness, poor skills and technical support, poor excess to marker due to bad roads, and several other challenges.

“Our predicament as women farmers originally began with access to land for farming, traditional, women in Nigeria have no right to land, land belongs to the men and women remain tenants in our own country. Even when we rent land to farm, women are so unsecured on the farm. We are being raped on our farms by men, we are being killed on the farm, this is more peculiar to states like Plateau where cattle grazers and farmers are at loggerheads,” she said.

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Plateau women farmers struggling to access agric funds