Agriculture
THE Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), has called on the Federal Government to review customary land laws for small scale women farmers to inherit land sustainability.
The FCT Coordinator of SWOFON, Mrs Comfort Sunday, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja, during a news conference on the organisation’s charters of demands to government.
Sunday noted that most properties like land is often allocated by tradition and culture dependent on the cultural practice and geographical zones.
” Small holder farmers do not have formal title deeds to the farm lands they produce but own the land through traditional structures or they lease and rented from community heads.
” In addition, lack of land tenure makes it difficult for small – scale farmers to use thier lands as collaterals to purchase inputs, machineries and labour force to increase productivity,” she said.
The coordinator said there was need to step up effort to enable women increase beyond subsistence farming into high value market oriented production which could be achieved by large allocation and expanse of land for farming by the State and Federal Government.
” In rural Nigeria, land ownership is one of the key limiting factors of production among female farmers. land access is challenged by the way land is inherited and owned in most ethnic groups in Nigeria, who are patriarchal.
” This is also affected by patrillineal(from father to son), traditional authority structures that tend to give men decision – making control over women and people with special needs in all spheres of life.
” Women make up most of the Nigeria’s rural labour force, male are five times more likely to own land than females.
” In general, land ownership is exceptionally low among women, this is a factor that limits their ability to explore land -based livelihood strategies.
” This affects their ability to access finance by using land as collateral property, which often delays investment decisions or reduce the earning potential of women farmers.
” We the Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria demand there should be a review of customary land laws for small scale women farmers to inherit land sustainability.
” Arable farm land should be allocated to small holder women farmers’s cooperatives,and Government should commit to small holder women farmers in the area of implementation of policies,” she said.
Other demands made by the organisation included creation of dual passage roads for agricultural produce in order to boost access to market.
The organisation also wanted government to ensure that farm inputs reach the small holders women farmers on time in order to avoid missing the planting season
NAN
– Mar. 23, 2021 @ 18:55 GMT
Tags: Association urges FG to review customary land laws for women farmers
