Women farmers articulate hindrances to land ownership in Jigawa
From: Ahmed Aminu, Dutse
Members of Smallholders Women Farmers (SHWF) in Jigawa State have expressed concern over difficulties in acquiring land for farming in the state.
They said in spite of growing interest for farming, most women have abandoned the interest because they could not own the needed land to so.
The women said during a town hall meeting held at Jigawa State Polytechnic, Dutse, that the situation had forced them to rent farms, thereby reducing the money they would have otherwise spend on expanding production.
The Syndicate reports that the town hall meeting was organised by Baba Azumi Foundation (BAF) in collaboration with Action Aid Nigeria, supported by Strategic Partnership for Agroecology and Climate Justice (SPAC-WEST AFRICA).
“It is a major setback for farming business in Jigawa state,” Malama Zainab Abdullahi, one of the women farmers from Dutse local government area, said.
“Women farmers are seriously suffering in getting land for farming and many are discouraged from going into the business despite the lucrative gains in it.
“For some of us who insisted on going ahead, we spend huge amount paying rent every season, and most times we use the profit we are supposed to get to pay rent, or forced to reduce the land space to cultivate to cut down the cost of renting the farms,” she said.
Also, Malama Maimuna Ahmad from Auyo local government area said government should devise a way to open spaces for women farmers to ease the current challenges.
Earlier, the founder and chairperson of BAF, Barrister Aisha Sulaiman Jahun said the town hall meeting was to serve as a crucial platform for engagement, advocacy, and collaboration among smallholder women famers, policy makers, agricultural experts and key stakeholders, to identify bottlenecks in land access.
She added that it was to encourage gender responsive policies and programmes that prioritise women’s right to own land and a secured tenure, as well as strengthen collaboration among all actors for the sustainability and scaling-up of agroecological initiatives.
According to her, the partnership with SPAC-WEST AFRICA aligns with Actionaid International Transformative Impact Fund (TIF) which aims to improve food and nutrition security, while enhancing agroecological skills among 120,000 Smallholder women famers and young people.
This, she said, was to increase access and control over land for smallholder women and young farmers in Jigawa state.
She said they had trained 18,874 smallholder women and young farmers on agroecological practices, adding that the project is holding in three states, including Jigawa where nine local government areas are participating.
In his remark, the Chairman Dutse Local Government, Dr Sibu Abdullahi, pledged to look into the issues raised by the women farmers.
He commended the foundation and Actionaid International for organising the townhall meeting to deepen women contribution to food security in the state.
Participants at the meeting agree to engage relevant policy makers and push for special allocation of farmlands to women and young people.
