By Praise Chinecherem
Stakeholders in Agricultural sector have urged Anambra State Government to be more deliberate in addressing challenges confronting smallholder women farmers as they constitute more than half of the entire farming population of the state and the country.
The stakeholders made the call at a one-day stakeholders dialogue on enhancing accountability and transparency with oversight institutions in Awka, the state capital.
It was organized by the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) to enhance accountability and transparency within the oversight institutions, with a view to ensuring that farmers especially small-scale female folks get more incentives from government.
The event was part of activities under the Strengthening Public Accountability for Result and Knowledge (SPARK 2) project funded by International Budget Partnership (IBP).
Presenting the project overview, SWOFON Program/Communication Officer, Chika Orji, noted that 26 million smallholder women farmers in Nigeria struggle to produce enough food to feed their family and meet their basic human needs.
“This is due to limited access to agricultural inputs, gender-friendly equipment and financial resources as well as underrepresentation of women farmers in decision making spaces.
“There are also the challenges of inaccurate/out-of-date data of SHWF in Nigeria, untimely release of funds to procure farm inputs and gender-friendly equipment, inequitable distribution of farm inputs/gender-friendly equipment and inadequate oversight on government agricultural initiatives.
“SPARK 2 project seeks to achieve systems change. So, we want to understand and address the bottlenecks that cause delays in release funds.
“The root causes of inequalities must be addressed while power structures that are against the women need to be questioned.
Budget and audit oversight critical
In another presentation on “Enhancing Oversight Functions for Effective Budget Implementation for Smallholder Women Farmers and Rural Development in Anambra State”, Sunday Taiwo, Communications Associate with Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, (PLSI), called for robust budget and audit systems that ensures that agricultural funds reach intended beneficiaries, particularly smallholder women farmers.
He noted, “Despite government’s commendable efforts in the agriculture sector, the trend of agriculture budgeting over the past 3 years shows consistent de-prioritization of the sector with 0.97% of the state total budget allocated to agriculture in 2023, 0.79% in 2024 and 0.59% in 2025.
“The allocation is also significantly less when compared with the 10% Malabo benchmark for agriculture budgeting,” he noted.
While recognizing some commendable Audit Practices in Anambra State, Taiwo recommended strengthening audit oversight in the state.
“There is need for annual preparation and publication of Citizens’ Accountability Reports (CARs) to foster transparency, strengthen public trust, and empower citizens with simplified audit information”.
“It is also beneficial to enhance CSO and Media Engagement in Audit Processes.
Goodwill messages
In a goodwill message, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Ifeyinwa Uzoka, who represented the Commissioner, Dr Forster Ihejiofor, remarked, “SWOFON is always our heart beat. If they benefit, the productivity will be very high and there will be more opportunities for wealth creation. The door of the ministry is always open to help”.
She noted that are many other programmes benefitting the people that are not captured in the budget. “These include IFAD Value Chain and others.
“This government is building roads that help evacuation of farm produce. Awba Ofemili used to be cut off but is now motorable. Markets are open in those areas.
“Amansea road leading to Ufuma and other places where farmers have suffered losses because they could not evacuate their products have been opened up.
“Everyone including farmers and SWOFON members benefit from all these interventions”.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Joachin Achor, noted that while agriculture is critical to the state survival, Government budget must cater for all its responsibilities in a manner that ensures that no one suffers.
Also, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs Chinwe Achugbu, promised that SWOFON will be a priority to the ministry henceforth. “Move closer to relevant MDAs so that they can understand how to help you. You need all the help you can get.
Audit Law almost ready
The Auditor General for the state, Akora Okocha, also reacted to issues raised in the presentation by PLSI especially the call for an Audit Law.
“The bill is at the finishing stage by the committee headed by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance. Very soon the state will have the law,” he assured.
SWOFON Coordinator, Georgina Akunyiba, noted that their previous advocacy visits to relevant government agencies are yielding positive results.
“Our members are in various cooperatives. In-fact nobody can be a SWOFON member without belonging to a cooperative.
“We appreciate the assistance from government so far, but we are still asking for more to help the state beat food insecurity.
In her remarks, the IBP SWOFON Consultant, Ugochi Ehiahuruike described the meeting as a New Testament meant to advance the interest of SWOFON.
“We are moving a bit away from the usual as we target government actors whose offices can help to achieve transparency and accountability in the implementation of agriculture budget.
“This will benefit women farmers and indeed SWOFON members the more,” she submitted.
