Smallholder women farmers face multiply challenges in the production of food for the teeming masses. They lack access to farm inputs and to finance through farm in loans/ grants and there are no specific budget lines to provide support for small holder women farmers. Women tend to be invisible to policy makers because they are not seen as productive farmers. Meanwhile, they are expected to provide food for the family, community and State at large.
With support from ActionAid through the Public Financing in Agriculture (PFA) project, PDA has worked with smallholder women farmers in 4 Local Government Areas (Abakaliki, Afikpo North, Afikpo South and Onicha) to address the challenges of low voice and participation of women farmers in agricultural policy making both in the local and State level. The project create linkage between smallholder women farmers and Government and has helped smallholder women farmers to be conscious of their agricultural rights – to access farm inputs, loans and grants as well as extension services. This is as a result of a series of advocacy engagements, press briefings and consultative meetings with government entities.
One major outcome of the project is the ability of women farmers to explore opportunities to access support. Before now, smallholder women farmers have found it very difficult to start farming on their own except they have the notion that government is giving out agriculture inputs. But, from the empowerment of women through practical trainings, women who venture into farming – even with small plots of land, gradually growing these to begin to cultivate in hectares of land.
Mrs. Nnenna Nkama of Oso Edda community in Afikpo South LGA is a typical example of such. She started her farming with a plot of land and has now expanded to a hectare of land. she cultivates rice, yam and cassava. Before the end of each farming seasoning she gets not less than 35 to 40 bags of rice. Mrs. Nnenna is not just into crop production but also into poultry farming and fish farming. In poultry farming alone, Mrs. Nnenna has raised up to 100 broilers per year. It is from the income she generates from her agriculture proceeds she has trained her children up to the tertiary institution level. In addition, Mrs Nnenna has started a building project and is excited that she will soon complete this. According to Mrs. Nnanna, “the PFA project has helped me acquire knowledge on how to improve my agricultural productivity. It has equally exposed me to the need to see agriculture as a business to exploit. The project has helped build my capacity to be able to engage government and demand for agriculture farm inputs. With the knowledge I gained through PFA activities I have been able to gain access to agricultural inputs like improved cassava, rice, fertilizer, urea and herbicides from the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), ADP and FADAMA. Many, like Nnenne have benefited from the PFA project, and many more are underway.
