SWOFON Advocates for Increased funding of Agricultural Sector

…Converge South South Stakeholders in Uyo

By Emmanuel Sampson

In the last few years, the Nigeria agricultural sector has been considered as being underfunded by the government thus negatively impacting the transformative growth in the sector. Not satisfied with the budgetary allocation to the Agricultural sector in the South South geopolitical zone, the National President of Small-scale Women Farmers Organization of Nigeria (SWOFON), Mrs Mary Afan has appealed to State Governors in the region to scale up investment in the Agricultural sector as a strategic approach to increasing food production, reducing hunger and poverty in the region.

Mrs. Afan made the call on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 in Uyo, during SWOFON South South Region Strategic Engagement with stakeholders in the Agric sector on how to chat the way forward to address emerging food insecurity.

The National President who described the region as an area that is blessed with numerous natural resources hence the need to unlock the agricultural potentials among the people said analysis of the budget within the South South States is still below the Malabo declaration of 10 percent accelerated Agricultural Growth.

She explained that for the region to boost agricultural production, special intervention funds must be accessible by women farmers, to enable them to increase their farm holding and capacity beyond the subsistence level.

The president further maintained that if women farmers in the rural communities are being spurred up, it would bring about an increase in food production for all households,as women according to her constitute 60 percent of the population when it comes to farming.

To further boost agriculture in the area, Mrs. Afan, noted that if loans and farm equipment are leased out to women, it would improve their production with less labour.

According to her, “we are going round the 36 states of the federation to see how we can support women to increase food production in the country, and we will not stop until we get the desired results. May I inform you that SWOFON is a network of over five hundred thousand (500,000) women across Nigeria with chapters in all the states”.

In her goodwill message, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Ini Adiakpan, appreciated SWOFON for choosing Akwa Ibom state as their choice for the South South stakeholders strategic engagement. Dr. Adiakpan disclosed that governor Udom Emmanuel has done enough to put food on the table of every Akwa Ibom household.

She urged women to adapt to the global changes by planting crops which are suitable to the climate, adding that women should also grow crops which are going extinct

The Commissioner extolled Governor Udom Emmanuel for implementing the AK- Cares project. She said through the project, farm input like farm tools, fingerlings, stems, fertilizers among others were distributed to aid farmers in all categories.

Setting the tone for the advocacy, the Akwa Ibom state Coordinator of SWOFON Mrs. Emmanuella Friday, called on government, private individuals and corporate organizations to partner with SWOFON for food sufficiency in the country.

Mrs. Friday insisted that for the family to be economically strong, viable and sustainable, the government at all levels must work the talk by providing good seedlings,farm inputs and financial support to SWOFON to help reduce poor quality of food, high food costs and even total lack of food.

Other participants, from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, National Incubation Centre and National Centre for Women society among others, asked the government to give more financial attention to women farmers as they are known to be responsible for about 70 percent of Agricultural produce in the country.