Agroecology: Stakeholders Advocates For Land For Women Farmers In The State.
By Olusegun HOSEA. 28th February,2024.
The stakeholders in Ondo State has advocated for land acquisition and access for women farmers in the state. This was made known in a stakeholders engagement on land access ,control and ownership for stake holders women Farmers and young people in agroecology.
Explaining, Mrs Oyediji , the coordinator of Small scale women Farmers organization of Nigeria -SWOFON in Ondo State said the organization was created in year 2012 as a coalition women Farmers organization to promote the use of agroecology across the state.
According to her , she said agroecology is a Sustainable farming that works with nature or it can be said to be a farming method that promote organic farming without the use of chemical for planning.She talked about the lack of processing and storage facilities in the state, lack of access to extension services at the rural communities, lack of credit scheme for SWOFON to boost their Agriculture production.The poor road network was also part of the challenges they are having and the lack of buyers from the government are another angle they wants government to address.
The programme which took place at SUN VIEW Hotel in Akure and was organised by Actionaid Nigeria in partnership with Justice Development And Peace Centre(JDPC) on strategic partnership on agroecology and climate Justice West -Africa (Spac) project . The programme with objectives was to facilitate critical conversation on issues around access control and ownership of land for SWAHFS and young people with the key influence.
Also, to ensure gender inequality, cultural barriers affecting women in decision making over land is addressed holistically. They advocated for young people to have access for land in order to farm and produce farm produce for the people. Laterals expansion and the insecurity are some of the problems that causing people from access land.
Similarly, the International Federation of women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria advocated for the rights of the women at all levels. That the women should have right to own land and protection. While talking, the leader of the FIDA Mrs Olufunlayo said women should be allowed to own land without discrimination and that women should be given opportunities to become what they wants to become and be allowed to have access to resource.
Reacting, the Chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists -NAWOJ, comrade Tola Gbadamosi, in her presentation encouraged the government at all levels to allowed women have access and acquired land for farming activities. The Chairperson, opined that women Journalists are ever ready to give publicity to the activities of the SWOFON in the state and beyond as they have all their members across all the existing medium in the country. She advised the coordinator of this group to choose a day for them to displayed their farm products for the public to patronized and thereby people would know that such group is existing. She Admonished the organiser to always co-opt the Journalists whenever they are organizing this type of Programme as they are the best group that could promote and project their activities to the people of Ondo state and the world at large.
Similarly, the International Federation of women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria advocated for the rights of the women at all levels. That the women should have right to own land and protection. While talking, the leader of the FIDA Mrs Olufunlayo said women should be allowed to own land without discrimination and that women should be given opportunities to become what they wants to become and be allowed to have access to resource.
In another development, the participants are of the opinion that we should ensure that what we grow are edible for human beings. And that most of the land the government is giving out or are expected to give out are meant for individual that wants to go into farming . He said the property are those land acquired by the government and that they gave them out to people without any external interference.
The permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Mr Oloruntoba advised the leader of SWOFON to chose a day to showcase their products so that more women and other people in the society would known and see what they have done or they are doing in the Agriculture sector. That all the organic products should be promoted in a particular location across all the local government in the state, as this would promote them across the state and Nigeria at large and this would called SWOFON DAY.
The stakeholders also advocated that government should ensure to buy the individual land that are not use in each communities and give them out to the women living in the such community for farming so that food would be available for all.
