FG Trains South-south Women Farmers on Climate Adaptation Strategies

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, yesterday, organised a workshop for women farmers from the South-south region on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Declaring the workshop open in Benin City, capital of Edo State, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mahmood Abubakar, said the training would build and enhance the resilience of the farmers to threat and impacts of climate in agricultural production.

The minister, who was represented by State Director of the Ministry, Mr. Wellington Omoragbon, said Nigeria’s agriculture is vulnerable and susceptible to the impacts of climate change.

He said: “Indeed, it is rain-fed dependent. Any change in the weather pattern, in terms of the amount, intensity, duration, and the on-set, affect farmers decisions on when, what and where of the crops and inputs as well as other cultural operations in the value chain.

“Climate change and variability affect particularly women who constitute the most vulnerable among the farming communities.”

The minister also noted that theme of the workshop: “Mainstreaming Gender into Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Women Farmers” was targeted, innovative and timely particularly with the outcomes of the 2021 Climate Change Conference in the United States.

Abubakar, who underscored the critical role of women in agriculture value chain, urged the participants to participate actively in the workshop session and document the strategies and solutions, which he said were expected to translate into practice in their various locations.

“Available statistics indicate that women constitute about 80 per cent of the labour force involved in agricultural production, grow up to 80 per cent of the food in Nigeria.

“Overall, they constitute about 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. Yet women face various facets of challenges and needs by women farmers especially climate change and variability, access to information and technologies,” he said.

Abubakar added that the choice of Edo to host the workshop was because it situated within the rainforest agro ecological zones in the country, facing ecological challenges as a result of the impact of climate change.

He also added: “As you are aware, the National Gender Policy in Agriculture was approved in 2019 with the thrust hinged on gender equity and equality for optimum productivity in the agricultural sector.”

This ultimately, would ensure commitment to gender mainstreaming at all levels of agricultural sector, which is seen as a tool for achieving gender-based reforms and increasing productivity by men and women along all the value chains in the sector.

Also, the National Steering committee for the implementation of the National Gender Policy in Agriculture was approved and inaugurated by the ministry in readiness for the implementation of the National Gender Policy”.

In his remark, Permanent Secretary, Edo Ministry for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Peter Aikhumogbe, lauded the federal government for mainstreaming women in agriculture into the climate change discussion.

Earlier in her address, Head of Gender Desk, Department of Special Duties in the federal ministry, . Ifeoma Anyanwu, said the workshop was in line with the national gender policy on agriculture of the Federal Government, which was launched in 2019.

The policy, she said was to remove the vulnerability of women in agriculture as a result of lack of requisite knowledge and access to agriculture technologies.

One of the participants, Mrs. Ebikinel Okoba-Otuogha, while thanking the federal government for this initiative, appealed to it to provide them with pumping machines to aid the watering of their crops just as it is done it in the northern states which has made farming within season and out of season possible in those regions.