Insecurity: Women farmers seek protection, decries incessant rape of members in Nasarawa ,Solicits government support to boost food production

By David Okpashi

WORRIED by the incessant rapes of women in Nasarawa state, Women farmers in State Wednesday cried out over rape of their members engaging in agricultural activities in the state.

They women in a press conference in Lafia said the challenge of rape cases of women in the state was hampering their agricultural activities thereby reducing their out pute in food production

The press conference which was jointly organized by the Young men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in collaboration with Ogbonge women, small scale women Farmers Organiztion in Nigeria (SWOFON) amongst others urged the state government to evolve policies that would enable them have access to agricultural supports services to boost food production.

Speaking on behalf of SWOFON, Mrs Ruth Joseph, emphasized the need for government to build capacity of women through empowerment and access to information especially on climate change, new improved seeds among others.

According to her, women farmers in the rural areas were subjected to rape, suffered a great lost in farming activities due to lack of adequate information on weather outlook, climate change, new techniques and lack of access to modern tools.

“I want to appeal to the government to engage more agric extension workers to reach out to women farmers, build our capacities in the areas of modern farming, women are hard working and ready to contribute their quotas to food security”, Mrs Joseph declared.

On her part, representative of ASSAPIN,. Mrs Justina Bala said women were vulnerable to climate change, urged government to support the women Farmers to build resilient against climate change impact.

“As a small holder women farmers, whenever we are hit by impact of climate change it left us helpless especially when our farms are washed away our source of livelihood is reduced, it makes the cause of living high because items in the market go up,” she said.

Patience Omegho, a volunteer community based Agric extension, identified land tenure system as one of the obstacles responsible for decreases in women involvement in agriculture and income generation of rural women farmers in Nigeria.

She said women ability and right to use and own a land influence they capacities as producers, noting that access to land was paramount to women whose sources of livelihood solely depend on agriculture.

“So, we are saying that government at all levels and traditional rulers should look into this problem as regards to owning a land by women, they should evolve policies that will enable women to have a land given that women contributed a lot to food security,” she said.

Mrs Patricia Onoja, of Ogbonge Women, tasked government to remove bottleneck on loan for women farmers, and also demanded increased budget allocation for agriculture and interest free loan to increase their output.

Other issues raised by Mrs Onoja include insecurity, herders attacks, kidnapping, and called on government to provide adequate security for women especially rural women farmers.

Earlier, Executive Secretary,YMCA Mada Hills,. Ango Adamu, said the press conference was in line with “Together Against Poverty” (TAP2) project supported by Oxfam Africa.

According to him, the objective is to draw the attention of Government and relevant government agencies to support women farmers achieve their dreams through farming and other agriculture value chain activities to improve their livelihood, income, increased resilience and be heard.

“It’s also about recognizing the role played by women farmers to food security despite challenges of inadequate and discriminatory tendencies around farm input distribution, inadequate access to land and other agricultural support services,”