Women farmers, under the aegis of Smallholder Farmers' Association of Nigeria (SHOWFAN), have called for special priorities in agriculture programme and policies.

"The small-holder women farmers should be put at the forefront of agricultural policies and programmes in the country, because they are the most direct farmers and are therefore very crucial to the food sufficiency programme," the women said in Ilorin.

Their declaration was contained in a communique from the association's third annual forum held in Ilorin.

The forum was organised in conjunction with the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE)/ActionAid Nigeria.

The women said they wouls like to see an increase in allocation and timely release of the agricultural budget to meet the Maputo Declaration Commitment on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, to which Nigeria is a signatory.

According to the communique, SHOWFAN said that there was a need for smallholder women farmers to be included in decision-making at all levels to ensure that policies were more effective and had better impact on small-holder women farmers.

The farmers' group observed that the participation of small-holder women farmers in policy-making processes was highly inadequate, as they were usually neither invited nor consulted.

"This is due to the absence of space and processes through which small-holder women farmers can engage with policy- makers and their voices heard. Despite a significant number of agricultural policies and programmes developed at the national, state and local levels in Nigeria, most policy and programmes targets, especially those involving small-holder women farmers, are not met due to poor implementation.

"For example, 10 years after signing the Maputo Declaration, committing a minimum 10 per cent of annual budget to agriculture, there has been a steady decline in allocation with the 2014 and 2015 Kwara State budgets, showing 1.38 per cent of the total budget for 2014.

"The figure went even further down in the 2015 budget, as it decreased to 1.29 per cent of the total budget," the association further observed.

It observed that the farmers were faced with indigenous technologies, with many having to cope with sustainability challenges like climates shocks and low soil productivity.

The forum demanded a review of Nigeria's land policy so that women could easily own land, while small-holder women farmers should be supported to form co-operatives through funding, capacity building and technical support.

"We seek a commitment to making existing policies operational - including committing adequate resources for implementation and putting mechanisms in place for a transparent process.

"We, also, desire an easy access to adequate and cheap credit to small-holder women farmers, as well as the implementation of policies aimed at putting agricultural researches into use, while providing more extension workers, especially females, to meet the capacity needs of small-holder women farmers," the communique said.