Kwara female farmers reject rice palliatives, demand land, farm inputs

Small Holder Women Farmers in Kwara state have rejected rice palliative to cushion the pains of fuel subsidy removal.

They instead urged the state government to make available parcels of land and farm inputs to their agricultural practice to enhance food production in the state.

The women said this in Ilorin, Kwara state capital during a stakeholders’ consultative meeting on the 2024 agriculture sector budget.

The farmers said that smallholder farmers feed the nation with their produce, while the large-scale farmers only export and distribute to corporate organizations.

The leader of the group, Oluwatoyin Abosede Anifowose said this in Ilorin during the stakeholders’ consultative meeting on the Kwara state 2024 agriculture budget.

The meeting was put together by the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE) and its partner organizations under the Scaling Up of Public Investment in Agriculture (SUPIA) Project Budget

She added that women farmers were not afforded due recognition by the state government, urging the government to provide training and retraining programmes, and agriculture input to help ensure adequate food security.

Anifowose, who doubles as the State Coordinator of Smallscale Women Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON), added that the rice and beans palliative were temporary, noting that the availability of land and supply of farm implements by the government would assist women farmers in increasing agriculture produce.

This according to her would go a long way in reducing food insufficiency and scarcity in the state.

He said:: “We don’t want to use crude farm implements like holes and cutlasses again. The government should assist women farmers across the 16 local governments of the state with gender-friendly machines like planters and tractors. If we have all these implements there will be a boost in agricultural produce from our farmers. We don’t want to be given rice as palliative to mitigate the effects of fuel subsidy removal, we want acres of land from the government apart from the farm inputs.”

The state Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Oloruntoyosi Thomas, and her counterpart in Planning and Economic Development, represented by Ajayi Matthew attended the meeting.


FI