Nigeria: Women fight climate change through agricultural output
By Odimegwu Onwumere
Women farmers and
environmentalists in Nigeria are doing everything possible to control the
effects of climate change on agriculture.
In a two-day
awakening seminar arranged by the Women Environmental Programme, WEP, in
partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment for Extension Service
Officers held in Makurdi, Benue State capital recently, the Executive Director
WEP, Mrs. Priscilla Achakpa ostensibly decried that Nigeria was in to lose
about $500 billion to climate change by 2020.
At the meeting where
Achakpa was stood-in-for by Mr. George Akor, a Director in the Programme, her
fears were that the country was headed to trouble if best approach is not taken
to inform farmers at all levels, especially the rural women farmers, about the
challenging menaces of climate change.
Gender Issue
Statistics show that
women farmers produce 28 per cent less than men in the Northern Nigeria. It is
therefore the idea of many stakeholders in the agricultural and climate change
management that the country must implement policies that would favour gender
subject, as the lack of women in key areas has not brought about the needed
result.
They judged that
since the effect of climate change is global, it can easily be tackled headlong
if women are given enough room to contribute ideas and frameworks to the fight.
They suggested that governments at all levels in the country are not properly
putting all measures in place to avoid shortsighted economic development of
farmers and women’s industrial expansion.
Environmentalist Greg
Odogwu had held that upon all the odds, Nigerian women are not relenting in the
battle to save the environment. He made the revelation in ‘Climate change and
women’.
“Nigeria is among the
nations where the women battle to save the environment and entrench sustainable
development. Many women are initiating laudable environmental projects and
green lifestyle concepts,” he said.
Professionals are of
the view that Nigerian women farmers are weathering all the challenges to their
lives and livelihoods to perform. They stem from the brunt of climate change
such as floods, droughts, harsh weather, and waning agricultural production.
Challenges
“The population of
Nigeria is growing rapidly. This has made food supply to be grossly inadequate
to feed the growing population. This has led to malnutrition, increased rates
of morbidity and mortality among the vulnerable groups – infants, toddlers and
pre-school children.
“In Nigeria there is
mass movement of people from rural to urban areas in search of more lucrative
jobs,” said Imonikebe, Bridget Uyoyou, Home Economics Unit, Vocational
Education Department, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria.
While women are
toiling the most to produce household food, deforestation has become a
predominant challenge in agriculture. Crops, water sources, and natural
resources are becoming scarce. And women are traditionally responsible for the
management of these resources and, they are suffering the-largest-part.
Despite clear
challenges, Ms. Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, World Bank Country Director for
Nigeria said, Nigerian women are making progress in the agriculture sector,
pointing out that women produce 16 per cent less in value terms than men per
hectare of cultivated land, adding that the overall figure masks regional
differences.
Whilst women are also
said to be fighting climate change which has become the most serious
environmental threat, they are also making sure they farm to fight against
hunger, malnutrition, disease and poverty in the society, through their impact
on agricultural output.
“Although, 35 per
cent of women are employed in the agriculture sector, and 44 per cent of the
country’s female headed households are involved in agriculture activities, only
18 per cent of rural plots are managed by female farmers,” said Ms. Marie
Francoise Marie-Nelly.
Solution
“Boosting women’s
agricultural productivity in Nigeria will require not only giving women access
to land, but more critically improved access to finance as well as valuable
information,” said Ms. Marie-Nelly.
This disclosure was
contained in a research done by the World Bank and the Federal Government,
which came as an answer to the suggestions that came out of the Gender Policy
Dialogue, organized in 2012 in conjunction with the United Kingdom’s Department
for International Development (DFID). The breach in production between male and
female land administrators, according to sources, remains noticeable at the
national level and should also be manifest in some parts of the country.
Bridget Uyoyou
identified that the constraints to rural women’s participation in food
production, as poverty, low crop yield and difficulty in acquiring loan needed
to be addressed through the cooperation of the rural women farmers, community
and the government. According to her, the most urgent and effective area that
need attention is the area of food storage and processing.
Markus Goldstein,
Gender Practice Leader, World Bank, added: “The full potential of Nigerian
female farmers will only be tapped if their common challenges and different
experiences across regions and social groups are fully acknowledged by
agriculture programmes.”
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