Participatory Development Alternatives (PDA) remained strongly committed to her plan of activities for the year 2019. The year unfolded with new learning which led to innovations and improvements and this brought about the judicious implementation of programs that made the year resourceful.
PDA collaborated with other CSOs and Government partners to bring about the desired change in the communities and the state at large. During the year under review, 165 + Smallholder Women Farmers in Ebonyi benefitted from the SMEDAN N3,570,000 grant facility through our support.
Not few than 165 women from 20 cooperatives of Smallholder Women Farmers Association of Nigeria (SWOFAN) Ebonyi State chapter have benefited from the Federal Government credit grant facility of N3,570,000 through Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). Speaking on the occasion of the grant disbursement the State Coordinator Mr. Asochukwu T. C, disclosed that the women farmers got this fund because Ebonyi State is among the five agrarian states that benefit states. He further said that the fund was to enable the women to carry out their 2019 agricultural activities. He commended the women saying that women targeted because 80% of the smallholder women farmers produce what Ebonyi people consume on a daily basis. He said, ‘We expect all members of the groups to participate in the grant sharing to ensure that there is enough food in the Ebonyi State next year’
Before the grant disbursement, the women farmers had received training on business and financial management. Mrs. Chika ThankGod who facilitated some the of the sessions during the training told the women in her closing remark that no business could succeed without business plans and records. To this effect she advised the women to have a plan, budget and a book to record their transactions. The women farmers had the opportunity of receiving grants from the Federal government due to continuous advocacy visits to government offices. Through Inclusive Forum for Accountable Society, (IFAS) a brainchild of PDA and Action aid Nigeria, the advocacy visits of the women farmers were a dream come true.
Mrs. Beatrice Nwanbara, a member of (SWOFAN) expressed her gratitude to the organizers of the programme saying, it was the first time her cooperative members received capacity building from the Federal government’. While thanking SMEDAN for this, she said, ‘the practical training of how to prepare a business plan has improved our knowledge on a business proposal and record-keeping’. She further requested that the state and federal governments should always remember the farmers by providing support through seeds and seedlings and modern farm input. Finally, she said that farmers will do better with continuous support.