By Ahmed Ahmed
The Smallholder Women farmers in Bauchi State have lamented poor access by women farmers to agricultural extension services in the State.
They made the lamentation at a one day dissemination of scorecard meeting on the findings of access to extension services from the year 2020-2023 on Friday in Bauchi.
Organized by Smallholders Women Farmers(SWOFON) Bauchi chapter in collaboration with Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative(FAWOYDI) with support from ActionAid,
Hajiya Hussaina Dabo, Smallholder Women farmers in Bauchi she noted the precarious situation of food production and unaffordability of prices of food across the country.
She pointed out that the challenges of women farmers have become a source of worry to stakeholders as they have continued to suffer neglect.
Also speaking, Hajiya Kaltume Babayo stressed that major challenges of women farmers is access to effective agric extension services
“We call on critical stakeholders including Federal State Governments, development partners and Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, to focus on inadequate staffing, poor funding of women farmers,” she said.
On her part, Mrs Dinah Daniel, Executive Director,Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative(FAWOYDI) advocated for programmes for women, youth and other marginalized groups.
She said extension workers department should facilitate access to credit for smallholder women farmers to support their farming activities to boost food production and Increased income,
Government should allocate budget and release funds for extension service delivery in the state
“To make budgetary allocation for capacity building for existing extension personnel to enhance their knowledge on modern agricultural practices which they can in turn pass down to farmers,” he said.
On her part, Mrs Faith Adidu, Programme Office Agriculture at FAWOYDI in her scorecard presentation advocated for improved access to agricultural extension services for smallholder women farmers.
Engage policy makers at different levels towards increased investment and qualitative spending in agriculture that targets smallholder farmers,
“Particularly women and provide information of smallholder women farmers rating/ scoring on access to agricultural extension services to government officials, the media and public,” he said
According to her, the findings in the Scorecard further stated that only 16.7% of smallholder women farmers indicated that their various cooperatives accessed extension services from the year 2020-2023,
“Whereas, 83.3% of the respondents stated that they have not accessed any services from extension workers/agents within the past four years,” she said.