women-farmer – Source: AfDB
Janet Ogundepo
Women farmers constitute about 17.5 per cent of the farming population in Nigeria. Despite their significant presence, they struggle to access land, work with limited farm implements, and receive little or no access to loans and government agricultural interventions. Lately, they face the greatest fears that inhibit their ability to help ameliorate the rising hunger in the country – being killed, kidnapped, and raped on their farms. Janet Ogundepo writes.
Globally, women make up the backbone of the agriculture sector but face a myriad of challenges that include limited support and lack of land ownership, which limits the impact they can have on the sector, making their toil on the land underreported, especially in Nigeria’s patriarchal structures.
These and many more of such challenges were what Airudia Mamman, a middle-aged farmer battled with for years to break even.
For this female farmer, rising from bed before the first light of dawn has been a daily ritual for her.
This long-standing habit, ingrained in her since she was a teen, has become second nature as her body clock has been so primed to ensure she gets up at exactly that time to see to the day’s activities.
Coming from a family of farmers in Gombe State, farming naturally became a vocation for Mamman, who is now a smallholder farmer growing maize, beans, and other crops.
Mamman
Despite her love for farming, she manages to balance it with schooling, thriving to ensure none suffers in place of the other.
From being a farmer in her parent’s house, she kept her fate and remained in her vocation in marriage and with a dint of hard work and consistency, rose to be the State Coordinator of Small-Scale Women Farmers.
Being a farmer for over 40 years has not been a bed of roses but Mamman is fortunate to have it better than some of her mates in other parts of the state.
However, “access to land,” she told PUNCH Healthwise, was a major problem women farmers faced.
She noted that farmlands were not cheap as they had to either buy or hire them from male family members.
No land to farm
Despite being blessed with a vast landmass of over 16,639 Km2, about five times larger than Lagos State’s 3,345 Km2, some women farmers in Gombe State still have limited access to land for agricultural purposes.
The issue stems from women’s exclusion in land inheritance, which is reportedly rife in some areas in the state.
Making the hard life faced by women more graphic and easily understood, Mamman said, “Women in my area don’t inherit lands. If you want to get land for farming, you either buy or hire from your husband’s family. They can give you a portion or pieces of land that you can farm on.
“Getting land is only possible when you have the money. The issue of non-inheritance of land by women is not favouring us at all.
“Gombe South has that issue of non-inheritance of land. In Gombe North, the women there inherit lands. So, even in the same state, there are discrepancies.”
Due to this, it was learnt that women farmers, especially those in Gombe South are always in a dilemma at the beginning of the planting season as they continuously worry over the uncertainty of regaining access to the just-used land or getting fertile lands for the next planting season.
Highly disadvantaged
The National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabiru Ibrahim, told PUNCH Healthwise that women farmers constitute about 17.5 per cent of the population of Nigerian farmers.
Although it is unclear what the national data of the entire farmers are, several groups peg the figure at 38 million and 70 million respectively.
The African Development Bank Group noted that 97.5 million rural dwellers are smallholder farmers, adding that they constitute 48 per cent of Nigeria’s 218 million population and about 70 per cent of the total farming population.
Yet, these women cultivate on less than two hectares of land and produce about 90 per cent of the nation’s agricultural output.
The United States Agency for International Development estimates that women smallholder farmers constitute 37 per cent of the labour force, yet their access to land, credit facilities, farm inputs, implements and training is limited.
Women farmers source file copy
Consequently, the World Bank Nigeria’s Gender Innovation Lab notes that they produce 30 per cent less per hectare than their male counterparts.
The World Bank Report further affirms the women’s claims.
It notes that they “use fewer inputs and have limited participation in extension services, farm less-valuable crops and hire less productive labour.”
However, these issues remain a constant battle that women farmers continuously face.
“The issue of land is the main demand because if you don’t have land, and you don’t have access to one, how do you farm,” Mamman, the female farmer queried.
She added, “Sometimes when you hire a land, they’ll give you a land that is not fertile. Let me give you an example of an issue that happened to a woman in Gombe. After hiring the land, cultivating, planting and applying fertilizer, she discovered that the owner had sold the land to somebody else. So, they were going to return the money for her expenses. It was disappointing.
“So, the problem associated with land is that it is either expensive or they will give you one that is very far in the bush, one which you will have to pay transportation before getting there. And with the issue of transportation nowadays, we don’t find it easy, especially with the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“Transportation to the farm is tough on us. So, the issue of land is a serious issue for us women. It’s not favouring us.”
Mamman said, fortunately, some women farmers recently had fair access to some government interventions such as farm inputs and implements, compared to their male counterparts.
However, their late arrival made the issue unpleasant.
“Sometimes, the input, especially the fertilizer comes at a very late time when it is no longer needed. So, even when it comes, it’s not at the right time. Last year the government supported us with fertilizer. But the timeliness is the issue,” she said.
Gender discrimination
Unarguably, gender discrimination in several sectors remains rife in Nigeria.
For example, data from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development’s Social Institutions and Gender Index revealed that Nigeria is among the 10 per cent of countries worldwide that exhibit the highest levels of gender discrimination.
The OECD’s assessment of the prevalence of discriminatory family code, restricted physical integrity, son bias, restricted resources and assets, and restricted civil liberties in the country came out with “high” or “very high” index rates.
The discrimination faced by women was well captured by Mamman in her personal experiences and in several instances as it pertain to other female farmers.
“So, there are some areas where women don’t go to farm. That is the Gombe North but in Gombe South, women farm. Women in Gombe North are only allowed to go into poultry and livestock farming within their domain.”
Tight bottlenecks surrounding access to soft loans are other challenges women farmers in the state are faced with.
The Small-Scale farmer wishes the government would give grants to more women farmers “to make us stand on our feet so that we don’t continue to look for loans. Grants are the only thing that can empower women to be on their feet and improve their productivity.”
She pleaded with the government to allocate more interventions specifically for women to prevent the competition they are forced to go through with the men.
Farming with hands
Going to the farm without the basic farming implements increased the worry lines on the forehead of Mary Ojah, a woman rice farmer in the Dodoma area of Nasarawa State.
Using her hands and make-shift tools while trying to maintain unfavourable postures on the farm, added to the calluses on her palms and stiffness in her back.
“We use our hands to farm and pull out the weeds. When I was done, I would have terrible body pains,” she recounted to PUNCH Healthwise tiredly.
Ogah
Aside from the pain Ojah nurses after every farm visit, the low crop yield adds fresh pain to her heart.
The physical strength she lacked as a woman limited her output and productivity as her fellow male farmers in the same dilemma fared better at harvest time.
Their yields are bountiful and they waste no time to grin with arrogance and further rub her disadvantaged state in her face.
Thankfully, succour came for Ojah and some of her fellow women and youth farmers through the intervention of a six-year programme of the Nigerian government, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Value Chain Development Programme in Lafia.
Being one of the beneficiaries provided her with a much-needed power tiller for her rice farming.
The beneficiaries of the programme, PUNCH Healthwise learnt were further trained on how to operate the machines.
The result, an elated Ojah said was a “bumper harvest. You need to see the rice on the farm. Also, they showed us the method to use to achieve a bumper harvest and we did it. Truly, we are very happy for what they did to us.”
The implements and training provided by the group were limited to five Local Governments in Nasarawa State.
No land to farm
Although grateful for the farm implements and improved harvest, the assurance of continuous access to the farmland after each harvest was a constant source of worry for Ojah.
Undoubtedly, Ojah faces the same issue as her Gombe State counterpart, Mamman.
“Sometimes when we are looking for farmlands, we suffer because it’s not easy for a female to go to the person that she wants to get farmland from. Most times, if you farm this year on land, next year, they will tell you to leave the farm for them to use it. So we are finding it very difficult in that aspect,” she lamented.
For the few times Ojah was lucky to get farmland during the planting season, safely transporting her harvest to the city becomes another daunting task.
The rice cum maize farmer said, “That is a big problem for us. We’ve written letters of request for the creation of an aggregation centre, where we can safely bring our goods from the farm and keep them for some time before selling but we are yet to get a response on this.”
Ominous fear of death
The insecurity and invasion of farms by herders is another constant battle the woman farmers face and which threatens their very existence.
Fear of an attack is one she wears closely on her sleeve during each farm visit.
A visibly shaken Ojah, while recalling some near-death encounters said several times, she had returned to her farm to be greeted by the sight of half-eaten cassava and maize stalks.
“This morning, I was shaking on the farm when I saw my destroyed cassava. I was afraid that if I should speak about it, maybe somebody would come out from the bush to kill me.
“Right now, I am still afraid and shaking from that experience. We spend so much money to plant and nurture these plants and they get destroyed the next moment,” the ardent farmer said, almost giving way to emotion.
Tired of the several farm invasions, Ojah urged the government to intervene in the famer-herder crisis.
She further called for the empowerment of women farmers with modern tools and technologies and a skilled engineer who would provide training on how to use them.
This woman farmer is also among the fortunate women beneficiaries of the FADAMA III Agricultural Intervention.
The National Fadama Development Project III is a $450m project implemented in 35 states of the federation.
It is financed by the International Development Association and federal, state and local governments.
It aims to improve the income of rural farmers and respond to the food and livelihood needs of farming households.
A few success stories
For a cassava farmer and a gardener in Kogi State, Joy Abudu, farming is a lifelong duty.
She believes that every woman should be engaged in an aspect of the agricultural food chain to reduce the high cost of feeding and threats of hunger.
Unlike her counterparts in the far North, she said during several intervention schemes from the government, a survey of the applicants’ farms and genuineness as a farmer would be ascertained.
“The federal government, especially the CBN would want to know the actual farmer by seeing them. They will carry out a survey to ensure that those applying for the loan are the actual farmers. They don’t give the loan anyhow,” she noted.
Abudu noted that of the intervention given to AFAN, 30 per cent were allocated to women farmers.
“When they give AFAN, the woman leader is entitled to 30 per cent of the total loan. The women benefit from the 30 per cent from the woman leader and this is statutory now,” the cassava farmer revealed.
No land inheritance, especially for PLWDs
A young woman farmer in Nasarawa State, Magret Ogah, noted that women farmers have to pay more to get tasks on the farm done.
“But access to this capital is always hard to come by and doesn’t come on time,” she told PUNCH Healthwise.
The challenge is further heightened for Ogah as she lives with a disability, which makes her spend more hiring farm labourers to work on the farm.
Being a young woman and a PLWD, if she is not around to supervise the workers, she is left with reduced yield despite investing so much money.
Women working on a farm – credit Neol Palmer CIAT
Despite these challenges, the young cassava farmer continues to farm and is currently a student at one of the Polytechnics in her state.
But the tale is not yet ended, “Females are not entitled to inherit lands but it depends on the family one comes from. Some women have understanding fathers, brothers and uncles, who would give them land to farm. However, some male relatives, after the woman has pleaded with them for a land to farm would deny them and prefer to give it to a non-family member.”
Ogah is grateful her brother gave her the land she currently farms on, granting her the privilege of being economically independent despite living with a disability.
The intervention of VCDP in the provision of cassava stem, fertilisers and herbicides has further helped her succeed as a female farmer.
‘Ineffective agric interventions’
For an adept farmer and the National Women Leader of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Mrs Roselyn Benson, the ineffectiveness of several agricultural intervention schemes has hampered the productivity of women farmers compared to their male counterparts.
She further noted that several suggestions to form a united front through groups and cooperatives to ensure the interventions reached women farmers have yielded little to no results, leaving the women to self-finance and fund.
Benson said, “The government intervention arrangements are not effective. Most of the women are peasant farmers although some of them are big-time farmers into commodities.
“The problem is the requirements for them to be in groups like cooperatives or women’s groups, yet when they form the groups, they still don’t get access to the interventions.
“Although Lagos State is trying to do a bit of this intervention for food security, it is not getting anywhere because the women are not in groups and if they are in groups, they are not being looked after.
“The requirements of these ‘Anchor Borrowers’ and other interventions are so stiff that they can’t sort things out, even when they are in groups. Yet the inputs and feeds are so expensive and some of them have to do the financing themselves.”
Like their male counterparts, the women farmers are also faced with bad roads but are more disadvantaged as they have little or no access to storage facilities.
Undoubtedly, this puts them at risk of having rotten produce and post-harvest losses, leading to loss of investment and environmental degradation.
“Also, due to insecurity, some of the security forces, most times don’t allow vehicles in and our produce gets spoilt (during the waiting period),” Benson lamented.
Middlemen, climate change problems
Climate change and hassles with middlemen who buy at cheaper rates and sell at ridiculous prices further compound the woes of these female farmers, the AFAN women leader told PUNCH Healthwise.
This situation leaves them at the mercy of poor yields and little returns on investment.
Benson said, “With climate change, you know when it should be raining and there is no rain, it causes all sorts of problems. Lack of storage facilities for the produce is another issue because, by the time they feed their animals or have their produce ready for sale, nobody will pick them. The middlemen buy from them at a very ridiculously low rate and by the time the money comes in, it’s not even up to what they use in producing.”
Climate change
Image Source: Sphera
She further noted that the stiff competition between the women farmers and ‘estate agents’ whom she disclosed buy and build houses in agrarian communities, leaves the women farmers with the problem of land availability.
The AFAN women leader sums it up, “There are so many things working against women in farming. One is the lack of land. Like I told you, the villagers or whoever is in charge of the land would prefer to give it to people who want to build houses.
“Two, no financial assistance; three, no storage facility; four, no assistance whatsoever, I mean in terms of helping them get to the markets, and also the involvement of the middlemen. Aside from these, there is also the climate change issue affecting them so much.”
Benson pleaded with the government and family members to allocate more farming lands to women and prevent “big farmers from overshadowing the women and taking it from them.”
Killed, raped on the farm
“Ah! Being raped and killed is the worst!” was Benson’s remarks when asked about how insecurity affects women farmers.
She continued, “Especially in the North. Even here in the West, you can’t go to the farm alone to do anything. You can be kidnapped, raped and all sorts of things can happen to you on the farm.
Most women have been killed, raped and kidnapped on the farm. It’s very terrible. Also, by the time their produce is ready, somebody will just come and scatter everything and carry some away.”
Although there is no clear data on the number of women farmers killed, raped or kidnapped while on their farms or during farmer-herder conflicts, data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, 2021, reported that since 2005, about 8,343 persons have been killed during the farmer-herder’s clash.
farmer-herders conflict
The PUNCH recently reported that the AFAN president, Ibrahim, called on farmers to defend themselves due to the constant banditry and herder attacks.
Benson also urged the government to recognise existing women’s cooperative groups and through that, channel aid to them.
She demanded that intervention funds be given to them directly and not to “political farmers.”
Benson, however, praised the recent intervention given to some maize farmers through their association, emphasising that interventions should be channelled through specialised farmer’s groups.
To curb the excesses of middlemen and off-takers, the female farmer called for the creation of farmers’ market spots in states and local governments to enable farmers to bring their produce directly to the market.
Local guards to comb forest- Security expert
To proffer solutions to the death, rape and kidnap of women farmers, the Director-General of the International Institute of Professional Security, Tony Ofoyetan, urged heads of rural and farming communities to form security networks that would comb forests and get rid of criminal hideouts.
He advised that the forest patrol team should comprise the local vigilantes and hunters, stressing that locals are familiar with the terrain and topography of their areas.
“They don’t need to wait until they are attacked. Once these people know that the forests are being patrolled, it would reduce drastically. They can also liaise with the police force to act as a response team such that after the forest patrol teams have combed the forests, streams, and mountains, they can present the challenges to the police or other government security agencies.
“Once they can identify hideouts and ritual dens in the forests, it is then the responsibility of the response team to attack or dismantle those places,” the seasoned security expert said.
Ofoyetan further suggested that farming communities restrict the movement of non-indigenes, especially at night.
He asserted that the responsibility to safeguard forests rests on the shoulders of the traditional leaders and village heads.
If this was done, the IIPS DG asserted that it would consequently make the farms safe for the women.
He added, “They can also have a communication system wherein farmers, especially women are given features or basic phones where they can dial during any emergency and access response teams.
“Also, each community can be cordoned off based on a boundary basis, so that they would have people guarding the posts based on a shift-to-to-shift basis. Once that is done, our women will be able to go to villages with some level of confidence.”
Gender transformation, catalyst for change – Expert
A professor of Agricultural Economics at the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto State, Ahmed Ala, asserted that the challenges the women farmers faced were due to the deeply entrenched traditional and religious system in the country.
He noted that these issues stemmed from the gender-based division of labour that had begun right from childhood.
The researcher on the ‘Role of Women in Livestock Production and Determinants of Women’s Interest in Agriculture, said, “Africa is a patriarchal and male-dominated society. Of course, male dominance is everywhere in the world; it is more in Africa. From our homes, there is that social construct of roles and responsibilities. Even though it is declining, you still find that in many elite households, opportunities for men still differ significantly from those for women. Right from the home, there is no equal opportunity.”
Ala further stated that these social constructs of power, roles, and activities influence the perception of women farmers in terms of access to land, farming implements, and agricultural interventions.
The agriculturist said that gender roles place women at a competitive disadvantage from actively participating in certain economic activities.
Discussing potential solutions, Ala emphasised the need for gender mainstreaming and transformation.
“Gender mainstreaming involves ensuring that any government opportunities, such as loans, credit, or agricultural inputs, women are allocated a certain percentage. For example, out of 100 per cent available credit, 30 or 40 per cent must go to women. All policies, programmes, and legislation should reserve a specific portion exclusively for women to prevent them from having to compete directly with men, which they often can’t do on equal footing.
“This approach aims to create balance and equality in opportunities,” he stated.
Ala further explained that gender transformation tackles the root causes of gender disparities embedded in tradition, culture, religion, beliefs, and societal institutions.
He said, “Firstly, gender transformation involves educating husbands to see women as partners with valuable contributions to make. So, please, when it comes to control over resources and decision-making in the house, allow a woman to also partake and give her advice. And when she gives advice, take it. They should understand that they are partners in progress.
“The next thing is to go to the traditional and religious institutions and explain to them that men and women are partners and should work together.
“Ultimately, the goal is for clergymen, traditional leaders, and household heads who are mostly men, to recognise that women deserve equal opportunities to work, earn money, and make decisions about their resources.”
Ala insisted that gender mainstreaming should precede gender transformation to prevent family conflicts.
He also highlighted the importance of involving leaders of agricultural cooperatives to ensure women receive equal opportunities.
The agriculturist noted that since women constitute about 50 per cent of the population, their economic contributions are crucial for the country’s economic growth and development.
He advocated the implementation of the Gender Action Learning System, a community-led empowerment methodology aimed at orientating traditional rulers, religious leaders, household heads, and leaders of cooperative and farmers’ organisations on the cultural definitions and assignments of gender roles.
This, the don stated would promote the active participation of both genders in decision-making and will help address the issue of inequality.
“But this process takes time because it is deeply rooted in culture. Cultural change is not easily achieved overnight. So, we need to begin to do away with the social constructs and see everyone’s work as beneficial to the entire community,” the agriculturist insisted.
‘Be more proactive’
The AFAN president, Ibrahim stated that since women farmers form 17.5 per cent of the farmers, farmer groups needed to be more gender conscious in giving them more prominence than they currently enjoy.
He noted that more prominence would incentivise and empower them to do more.
Ibrahim further advised the women farmers to join “cooperatives and veritable associations like AFAN, which will give them a voice and more visibility and therefore, better access to support from both the government and donors.”
On how to resolve the challenges of having equitable access to farmlands, Ibrahim advised, “Farmers both men and women should embark on advocacy, conduct visibility events and become more proactive.”
Federal Ministry of Agriculture mum
PUNCH Healthwise reached out to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Food Security to get a response about issues raised by the female farmers but all efforts were unsuccessful.
Messages and calls to the Ministry’s spokesperson, Mr Ezeaja Ikem, were not acknowledged or responded to as of the time of filing this report.
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