GES: Female farmers call for more redemption centres

Mrs Anase who made the call at a one-day annual women farmers forum at Ofuloko in Igalamela-Odolu Local Government Area of Kogi State, said this would enable them access farm inputs timely, adding that the one-day forum was aimed at engaging women farmers on issues and challenges they encountered in the last cropping season.She said […]

Mrs Anase who made the call at a one-day annual women farmers forum at Ofuloko in Igalamela-Odolu Local Government Area of Kogi State, said this would enable them access farm inputs timely, adding that the one-day forum was aimed at engaging women farmers on issues and challenges they encountered in the last cropping season.
She said the distance between communities and agro-dealers is still a major challenge, adding that as a result, government subsidised agricultural inputs like fertilizer and seeds could not get to most rural women farmers in the state last year.
She called on government to engage sincere agro-dealers “who are not hostile to women” and the on local government councils to complement the federal and state governments to defray the costs of farm inputs.
“The cost of agro inputs like seeds and fertilisers is too high for us. Local governments should help us to reduce the cost. N6,000 is a lot of money for small holder women farmers like us,” she said.
A female farmer from Ugbaja community in Igalamela-Odolu local government, Mrs Rabi Alhassan said, “we heard government did a lot for women farmers last year in the provision of fertilizer and seeds but we never benefitted from anything.
“Most women submitted their data forms but because many women like me don’t have a phone and poor GSM service in my community, we could not participate in the Growth Enhancement Scheme,” she said.
Another woman who also spoke at the event, Mrs Adija Mohammed, 55, said: “I am not educated and I live in poverty but ActionAid and PIBCID have opened my eyes on how to engage government policies in agriculture. We paid advocacy visits, got good feedbacks but we are yet to benefit from government plans.”
The forum was organised by ActionAid Nigeria in collaboration with Kogi-based Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID).