The Nigeria Country Director, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr
Ousmane Dore, said that Nigerian women contributed close to 70 per cent
of agricultural workforce yet got less of accruing returns. Dore said this at the launching of African women in agriculture
report titled:
``Economic empowerment of African women through equitable
participation in agricultural value chains’’ on Monday in Abuja. He said that the report aimed at contributing to the economic
empowerment of African women in agriculture, through identification and
proffering of possible solutions to hindrances to women’s active
participation in agricultural value chains. ``In spite of their (women) huge labour investment, productivity is
low and they often have limited roles in decision making on the farms. ``Lack of ownership of land and other productive assets due to
existing social norms has created a significant negative impact on the
family income and the nation’s GDP at large,’’ Dore said. He said that the bank recognised crucial role of women in economic growth and sustainability in Africa. Dore said that the bank’s 10 years strategies (2012-2022) had placed
high emphasis on gender equality and mainstreaming as prerequisites for
African economic transformation. He said that the report had examined how AfDB and partners could
sustainably and proactively support African women by developing unique
tailor-made projects for women-led and women-dominated businesses in
agriculture. Dore said that the entities included support for trade, investment and integration of African women in agriculture value chains. ``In Nigeria, women make up to 50 per cent of the total national
population and so any meaningful development must take them into
reckoning and fully integrated into the equation,’’ he added. Special Envoy on Gender, Mrs Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, said that
agriculture was a critical sector on the continent, accounting for 60
per cent of employment. Fraser-Moleketi said that women’s presence in agricultural labour
force was significant at 50 per cent, therefore there was no better
overlapping opportunity to support their economic empowerment and
strengthen a critical sector on the continent. ``We (bank) need to grow agribusiness entrepreneurs (commercial
farms, processing, export) by creating niche products within the four
sectors we (bank) have prioritised - cocoa, cotton, cassava and coffee. ``To make these a reality, five interventions are required -
training, increasing access to inputs, financing, enhancing market links
and expanding co-operative programmes like women co-operatives. ``I believe that being ambitious about how we implement the
interventions identified in the report could change the face of
agriculture in Africa and empower millions of women,’’ Fraser-Moleketi
said. The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Mr Sunny Echono, said women are the cornerstone of
agricultural production, processing, marketing and utilisation in the
country. The Permanent Secretary was represented by the ministry’s Deputy Director, Extension, Mr Dele Onorunfemi. Echono said Nigeria’s agriculture could never achieve any meaningful
development without mainstreaming concern into the nation’s policy and
programme.
``Women supply 70 per cent of agricultural labour; 50 per cent of animal
husbandry related activities and 60 per cent of food processing, yet
they have access to only 20 per cent of available agricultural resources ``Despite these challenges, women are the cornerstone of agricultural production, processing, marketing and utilisation.
``They (women) play vital roles in the maintenance of our families,
investing as much as 90 per cent of their income in the families
compared to 35 per cent for men,’’ Echono said.
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