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From Rose Ejembi and Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
The National President of the Nigerian Association of Women in Agriculture (NAWIA), Mrs Ngizan Chahul, has identified discriminatory practices and violence against women and the girl child as major causes of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the country.
Chahul stated this in Makurdi at a Stakeholders and Smallholder Rural Women Farmers’ Interactive Forum organised by the organisation to commemorate the 2022 International Day of the Rural Women. The theme of the event was “Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All.”
Mrs Chahul who acknowledged the importance of farming to human existence said “women have been at the forefront of the venture contributing great proportions of their time to farming both in animal production and crop farming.
“This day wishes to recognise the critical role and contribution of rural women in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty, highlighting the essential role that rural women and girls play in the food systems of the world.
“Rural women and girls play essential roles in food systems, from production to processing, preparation, consumption, and distribution of food; as well as in securing household and community nutrition.
“Yet, unequal power relations between women and men in the household and society, discriminatory gender norms and practices, prevalent violence against women and girls, and their disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, result in unequal access to food and heightened experience of hunger, malnutrition, undernutrition and food insecurity.”
She however enthused that women have done their best in breaking the barriers around them and in achieving commendable levels of production at the local levels and called on all to always support and celebrate them.
An Assistant Director with the Benue state Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Abu Owoicho, stated that the state government was determined to sustain the leading position of the state in the production of food.
He disclosed that the government has supplied organic fertilizers to boost food production as well as ensure that an improved variety of seedlings were made available to farmers in the state to improve their annual yield and urged Benue women farmers’ to take advantage of the initiative.
The Director, Planning, Research and Statistics at the Benue State Ministry of Rural Development, Mr Moses Tavershima, urged women’s groups to form cooperative societies to enable them to access various funds and interventions put in place by the state government to improve their livelihoods.
The representative of the Coordinator of Fadama CARES in Benue state, Timothy Kaa, disclosed that the organisation had put in place several intervention platforms to assist rural women engaged in profitable agricultural production and urged the women to take advantage of the intervention.
Also, the Director of Women Affairs in the State Ministry of Women Affairs, represented by Mrs Doom Atsanan assured that the Ministry would ensure that women were not relegated in the scheme of things.
She noted that women and girls play critical roles in society, especially in the food production chain saying those roles should elicit all needed support and encouragement for the good and well-being of society.
The interactive session attracted women from various women’s agricultural groups and civil society organisations across the state.
