Women farmers in Kwara State have made clear their needs to the government. They said they needed such modern agricultural tools as tractors and soil-enriching inputs, even chemicals to fight crop-eating and other destructive pests, among other things.

It was not a lonely outing for the women growers. A raft of Civil Society groups and non-governmental organisations backed them as they made their case. The farmers were drawn from 18 communities in the state.

The civil society forum on women in agriculture is supported by other non-governmental organisations (NGO) such as Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE) and Actionaid Nigeria).

The event was organised by the NGOs.

The women farmers otherwise known as women in agriculture used the occasion to appeal to the state government to ensure adequate supply of fertilisers, herbicides and tractors to aid them.

A representative of the farmer from Kaiama Local Government Area, Silifat Mohammed, who said she has been farming for 22 years, lamented dearth of original herbicides and other farm inputs.

“We urge government to assist us with the provision of fertilizer, tractors and original herbicides. The last planting season I operated at a loss.  I expended about N85,000 for in planting beans but at the end I only harvested two bags. Insects invaded my farmland and ate them up,” she added.

Another who gave her name as Taiye Ibrahim, from Budo-Ara, Asa Local Government Area corroborated her colleagues.

She said: “We urge the state government to make fertiliser, herbicides and tractors available to aid our farming activities. We also want to feel the impact of agriculture extension services experts. We need funding too.”

Mrs. Ibrahim said she grew groundnuts, maize and yam.

Director, Agriculture Services, in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Abifarin Olawuyi, said the state government is not unaware of the women farmers’ contribution for the food sufficiency in the state.

Olawuyi said that the state government has always factored in the women farmers in its annual budget.

He added that the paltry amount allocated to the sector in the 2015 budget recently passed by the state House of Assembly was due to dwindling allocations from the federation account.

The director informed the gathering that the state government would make up for that in the supplementary budget.

State Director, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Alhaji Abdulazeez Oyelowo aligned with his colleague.

Chief Executive Officer, CCPE in the state, Kareem Suleiman said that the annual allocation to agriculture by successive governments in Nigeria is not enough to galvanise expected growth and development in the country.

Mr. Suleiman urged the state government “to endeavour to subsequently allocate an amount not less than 5 per cent of the total state budget to agricultural sector and progressively increase it to meet up with the 10 percent Maputo declaration commitment.”

He continued “since women participation in agricultural development cannot be overemphasized, considering their significant contribution in the agriculture value chain and food production, we recommend that women farmers be accorded a pride of place in subsequent budgeting which could reflect in at least 30 percent budget allocation to direct line items aimed at supporting smallholder women farmers.

“While noting that allocation to extension services in the previous years and 2015 agriculture budget has been non-existent, which has consistently being discouraging effective agriculture transfer technology by extension officer, we hereby recommend adequate funding for extension services which could reflect in at least 10 percent of the overall agriculture budget to bring about a more vibrant agriculture sector in our fledging agrarian state.

“That a forum should be created by the state ministry of agriculture and natural resources for the participation of smallholder farmers, especially women and civil society organizations in the budgetary processes for ownership.

“Finally, on agriculture financing and credit, we recommend that the state government should proactively engage the federal government to open up the Central Bank of Nigeria initiated ‘Nigerian incentive-based risk sharing system for agricultural lending’ (NIRSAL) for access by smallholder farmers, especially women.”