The Life and Peace Development Organization (LAPDO), supported by the United State Agency for International Development(USAID), implemented by Palladium International has trained smallholder women farmers across Southwest Nigeria on inclusion in decision making in the agricultural sector.
The program, held at Sunview hotel, Alagbaka Akure, titled "Enhancing inclusive agricultural governance through smallholder women farmers participation in the agriculture sector in the Southwest" was organised to support and make sure the voice of smallholder women farmers are heard in the decision making process, especially in the agricultural sector.
The Executive Director of LAPDO, Mr Franklin Oloniju said the aim of the program was to create an agro-women budget line that would cover the empowerment of women across the Southwest.
He added that LAPDO was enthusiastic about implementation of policies that are favourable to women and people with disabilities across the Southwest as well as inclusion of agro-women budget lines in all the local governments in Ondo State.
Oloniju further stated that the program was focused on ensuring the capacity of smallholder women farmers was built across the Southwest, transformed themselves into strong business membership organizations, engaged the private sector and the international organizations independently.
He added that the program was to engage the budget, drive more resources, engage government areas on policy development and ensure the trained women went back to train other women on the changes, policies and the actions learnt during the program.
"This project we are doing today is the start-up to bring stakeholders together on how to go about the project implementation in the Southwest, achieve the strategies and refine our tools.
"We are sending the women back to a larger community of women across the Southwest that there are processes in place to make sure voices are given to them."
The Southwest Coordinator, Agro-women Initiative Network and one of the participants, Chief Mrs Anita Nana Okuribido described the program as an eye opener, saying it had exposed her to the needs to hold cluster women in order have a common voice as women in agriculture in the Southwest.
While adding that the program had revealed the importance of having a very successful project, she added that she had learnt how to make her priorities known through advocacy to relevant stakeholders in government and financial institutions.
According to her, "80% of the workforce in the agro value chain is driven by women. What we need is added value and that is why we want a budget dedicated by the government to be allocated to agriculture."
"When we have the dedicated budget line, then we will be able to achieve our objectives and goals in the agricultural value chain," she said.
Also, the Ondo State Coordinator of Small Scale Women Farmers Association in Nigeria, Mrs Grace Oyediji said she would start setting up the program at the grassroots to make sure the money allocated to the women in the budget line were released.
"We were taught to agitate for the Agro-women Initiative as we have it in the budget through our social media platform and the conventional news media", she stated.
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