Nigerian women farmers are known for their active involvement in agriculture, which has contributed a lot to ensuring food security in the country. However, these women, particularly the smallholder farmers, are now being confronted by numerous challenges militating against their farming business. NURUDEEN ALIMI visited smallholder women farmers in five Local Government areas of Oyo State to find out if they are getting any help from the federal government, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

IT was lamentation galore as Yetunde Adetona, a smallholder farmer and mother of two and this reporter journeyed through the bumpy road from Ologuneru to Elenusonso village, in Ido local government area of Oyo State, where her farm is located.

“This is what I experience each time I go to the farm. As you can see the road is very bad and the only affordable means of transportation for me is okada,” she said, noting that “even when the rain starts during the journey, we just have to continue as there is no place to hide.

“Imagine going through all this hardship and you get to your farm one day only to find out that weeds and insects have eaten up virtually all the crops. Last year, weeds and insects took over my farm and consumed almost everything on the cassava, maize and watermelon farms. The damage could have been prevented if I was able to afford the needed apparatuses to put weeds and insect to check.

“I lost all the financial resources and human efforts invested on the farm with no help coming from any quarter. I have tried to access loans in the past to no avail. I manage to do what I am doing on my farm with financial help from my immediate family members and friends but you know there is a limit to what they can do,” she told our reporter.

If Adetona had enough funds, she said she would have bought chemicals to stop the insects from destroying all her investments. But she has run out of funds and is very distressed about the loss of her farm produce.

“Another problem is getting to pay the labourers we engage to clear the farm. This entails taking care of their feeding, accommodation near the farm as well as other allowances which will make them function effectively.

“Also, during the dry season, there is no adequate water for irrigation. What my colleagues and I normally do is to resort to fetching water from a well, which is located some kilometres away from the farm. So, these are just some of the challenges we are facing as smallholder women farmers. Though the list is endless.

“If these challenges continue, there will be no food which would translate to famine. Aside from selling these farm produce, we feed ourselves from it as well,” she said.

Adetona believes that it is only the government that can come to the aid of women farmers by giving them maximum support in order for them to be more productive as food production remains the top priority of the government.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), women smallholder farmers are faced with multiple constraints beyond those of men farmers.

Women, FAO noted, tend to be invisible to policymakers because they are not seen as ‘productive’ farmers. They are often expected to provide unpaid farm work, and bear a disproportionate burden of care and reproductive roles within the family and community. They are deprived of access to markets, key assets, and inputs, and are frequently excluded from decision-making.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/smallholder-women-farmers-and-challenges-of-attaining-food-security-in-nigeria/