Skip to main content

15,000 smallholder women farmers’ cooperatives benefit from ActionAid’s project

15,000 smallholder women farmers’ cooperatives benefit from ActionAid’s project

…govt urged to meet 10% budgetary allocation on agriculture

Child Rights Act: ActionAid builds capacity of CRIC members across FCT

By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

Over  15, 000 smallholder women farmers’ cooperatives have benefited from ActionAid Nigeria, AAN’s, Public Financing for Agriculture, PFA, project in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, in boosting productivity.

This was disclosed by the Country Director, AAN, Ene Obi, in an address of welcome at the Public Financing for Agriculture (PFA) Learning and Close-Out Meeting, held in Abuja.

According to Obi, the PFA Project is designed to catalyse increased quantity and quality of public investment in agriculture to increase the productivity and well-being of women smallholder farmers, their households, and communities in Nigeria.

She further stated that the project was able to empower smallholder women farmers and Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, through capacity building, evidence-based data generation and creation of policy and programmes influencing spaces.

She added that the Project also initiated the formation of the largest movement of smallholder women farmers in Nigeria; Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) which is giving voice to smallholder women in the 36 States in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory.

ALSO READ: Easter: DPR assures of steady fuel supply, increased monitoring nationwide

She also appreciated individuals, government institutions and organisations who contributed to the progress recorded by the PFA Project.

She said: “Members and non-members of SWOFON across Nigeria now benefiting from government support and services; including training, extension services, inputs, credit, grants, agricultural machinery, and facilities which hitherto they never benefited from.

“We have invited you all here today to share the successes and learnings of the Public Financing for Agriculture (PFA) Project with key stakeholders and to officially close out the PFA Project.

“Some of the lessons learnt include that supporting smallholder women farmers associations results in wider reach of programme interventions and effective advocacy for policy change by smallholder women farmers at all levels where the organisation has a presence.

“For example, the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) now covers 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria and reaching over 15,000 cooperatives whose members have influenced agriculture financing policies for smallholder farmers.

“Working in collaboration with other organisations helps us to better leverage on each other’s area of strengths, additional resources, and skills.”

She also expressed optimism that, “Nigeria can feed itself and feed many countries in Africa. Serious attention and investment is needed. Agriculture used to be the main economic stay of Nigeria, and Nigeria is so blessed with both natural and human resource.

ALSO READ: Face-off: Okorocha, Imo monarch’s battle continues

“The workforce is extensive and available. Nigeria must diversify its economy and agriculture is a great opportunity for creating employment.

She (Obi) called on government and donor agencies to ensure the 10 per cent Maputo Declaration on budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector is achieved and surpassed in Nigeria as the Buhari-led administration is harping on the agricultural sector to diversify the economy in order to create jobs, generate foreign exchange revenue and industrialize the economy.

“We expect that partners and donors will sustain the momentum through their interventions, project designs and funding while we expect the federal and states government to increase funding to agriculture to meet the 10% Maputo Declaration and concentrate investments in Extension Services, Women in Agriculture, Credit, Labour Saving Technologies, Inputs, Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, Research and Development.

“The federal and states government should also ensure they organise stakeholders consultative meetings on the agriculture budget to get inputs from smallholder women farmers and CSOs to prioritise needs before Calls for Budget Circulars”, she stated.

Vanguard News Nigeria

The post 15,000 smallholder women farmers’ cooperatives benefit from ActionAid’s project appeared first on Vanguard News.


by Temisan Amoye via Vanguard News https://ift.tt/39zGjto Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Workers’ Day!!!from all of us at Coronation Merchant Bank

Today, we celebrate all our health care workers that are on call, working long hours and tirelessly trying to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without them, the country would be overwhelmed by the Coronavirus pandemic but they are risking everything to make sure we conquer the virus. Aside from being a day to celebrate workers, “Mayday” is also a distress call. Hence, we are calling on all Nigerians to mask up and stay home as much as they can so that the efforts of our health care workers will not be in vain. Happy Workers’ Day from all of us at Coronation Merchant Bank The post Happy Workers’ Day!!!from all of us at Coronation Merchant Bank appeared first on Vanguard News . by sunday via Vanguard News https://ift.tt/2VQxs07 Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia

Buhari reappoints Runsewe, others

 By Osa Amadi President Muhammadu Buhari has reappointed Otunba Segun Runsewe as Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture for another term of four years to continue the deepening of Nigeria’s cultural economy. The appointment was announced on April 30, 2021, by Garba Shehu, President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity. Others who were also reappointed were Mr Folorunso Coker, Director-General, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation, and Alhaji Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB). The President also approved the appointment of Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed as the Chief Executive Officer /Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria. Alhaji Ahmed was until his appointment, Director of Culture in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Bauchi State. Vanguard News Nigeria The post Buhari reappoints Runsewe, others appeared first on Vanguard News . by Lawal Sherifat via Vanguard News https:/...

CBN depreciates naira to N410.25 in I&E window

CBN By Elizabeth Adegbesan The Central Bank of Nigeria depreciated the naira yesterday by N16.25 kobo depreciated in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window. This represents the third and  biggest daily depreciation of the naira since 2017. Recall, the indicative exchange rate for the window jumped to N374 per dollar at the close of business from N368.33 per dollar on 11th of March 2020, translating to N5.67 depreciation for the naira. READ ALSO: ASUU strike cripples economies of university communities in 2020 Similarly,  last month,  CBN depreciated the naira  by N7.75 in the window, as the FMDQ platform, showed that the I&E window rose to N393/$ at the close of business from N385.5/$  November 24 2020. Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for the window rose to N410.25 per dollar from N394 per dollar on Wednesday, indicating N16.25 kobo depreciation of the naira. However, the volume of dollars (turnover) traded in the win...