The sustainable production of food is the pillar of food security in Nigeria. Million of women work as farmers, farm workers and natural resources managers. In doing so; they contribute to national agricultural output, maintenance of the environment and family food security.
Rural female farmers face many challenges in agriculture, as they do not have the modern facilities to help them facilitate their work on the farm. A woman will till the land, plant the crops but when the proceeds come, they come in small quantities because she is doing that manually.
Women are the backbone of the development of rural and national economics. In Africa, 80% of the agricultural production comes from small farmers, who are mostly rural women. Women comprise the largest percentage of the workforce in the agricultural sector. Governments have a major responsibility of ensuring that there is an adequate rural development play in their various communities and local governments which would lead to effective and efficient agricultural system that will not only supply food and animal protein but also boost the nation’s economy.
Despite the important roles play by the rural women in agriculture, women in Rivers State still suffer from lack of attention from the government and are face with poverty due to lack of modern technology to help them achieve greater livelihood.
That is why WOMEN FOCUS wishes to bring to the notice of the government, the ways agriculture can be made easy for rural female farmers in Rivers State.
Agriculture is the main alternative for rural women and it should come with better access to modern facilities that can help them cultivate in large quantities. It is a fact that rural women guarantee increases in food production. This not, however, sufficient to meet future needs.
Realizing the importance of rural female farmers in agriculture, it is necessary for the government to do the following:
For the rural female farmers to be effective in their agricultural work, the government must provided improved modern farming tools and implements. Farming with simple and ineffective tools (such as hoes, cutlasses, shovels etc) make agriculture tedious and production low. Technology has ushered in tractors, hand operated planted, wheel barrow, hand-operated fertilizers, drills combined harvesters which have increased agricultural productivity. Rural women need to be up-to-date on the latest implements and how they can increase agricultural productivity to have more food in circulation in Rivers State.
Rural women face greater challenges in term of securing credit loan. They are generally inexperienced with ins and outs of borrowing from financial institutions and without assistance and support; they find it difficult to access much needed funding. To practice large scale farming among rural women and to boost food supply in Rivers State, there is need for access to modern technological facilities. The rural female farmers do not have access to companies marketing farm implements; as a result they resolve to stay on the traditional tools which cannot yield much. Since agriculture is the main mean of food securing in the state, rural women should be provided with credit load to enable them go into large scale production. The financial institutions should make loan facilities available and accessible to rural female farmers by relaxing the criteria that have to be met before accessing loans.
Transport and access road are some of the critical areas affecting the rural women in agriculture. Because of lack of access road in the rural area, rural farmers (women) are confined to local market where prices are generally lower than in urban markets. Lack of access to transportation affects their ability to see more of their farm produce in time, if it is a perishable goods, such will perish and become a waste to the farmer. With good roads, the rural farmers can make prompt delivery of farm output to various markets both in the rural and the urban areas.
While we talk about how to market, the road to pass on, we should also discuss on the soil that these products will be planted on, before they become goods for sale. The rural female farmers need improved soil to plant on. Different crops require different soil nutrients to yield productivity. For instance, some soil that support the growth of groundnut ma not be good for rice or yam. Fertilizers also maintain soil fertility. Knowledge of various ways of improving soil quality is important to farmers. Fertilizers should be given and taught how to use them effective.
The crops need to be protected from pests, as not to reduce yield. Pesticides should be provided for farmers to help prevent pests destructing the crops.
Also storage facilities are as important as agriculture itself. The government should make available and accessible storage like bins, silos, rhombus of the efficient storage of farm produce, to increase the shelf live of products.
The training of the rural women is very necessary, especially with the adoption of modern agricultural techniques that are tailored to local conditions and the use of natural resources in a sustainable manner with a view to achieving economic development without degrading the environment.
In this juncture, WOMEN FOCUS want to use this medium to appeal to the government to give support to the rural female farmers in order to contribute to an increase in the level of production and productivity in Rivers State.
Friday Nse Edith
08025293937
