Agriculture stakeholders have appealed to the Anambra State Government to show greater commitment towards addressing the challenges affecting food production in the area.
They identified inadequate attention to small scale women farmers as a major setback for food production because the women constitute more than half of the entire farming population of the state and the country.
The appeal was made at a stakeholders dialogue on enhancing accountability and transparency with oversight institutions in Anambra State, organized by the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) to enhance accountability and transparency within the oversight institutions.
The event held under the Strengthening Public Accountability for Result and Knowledge (SPARK 2) project funded by International Budget Partnership (IBP), was aimed at ensuring that small scale women farmers get more incentives from government.
SWOFON Program/Communication Officer, Chika Orji, giving the project overview, noted that 26 million smallholder women farmers in Nigeria struggle to produce enough food to feed their family and meet their basic human needs due to limited access to agricultural inputs, gender-friendly equipment and financial resources.
“They are also underrepresented 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 There are also the challenges of inaccurate/out-of-date data of SHWF in Nigeria, untimely release of funds to procure farm inputs and gender-friendly equipment, inequitable distribution of farm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, seeking to achieve systems change, is designed to understand and address the bottlenecks causing delays in funds release. We want to address the causes of inequalities while power structures that are against the women also need to be questioned.
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.
He recognized commendable Audit Practices in the state, but recommended strengthening audit oversight. “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.
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. The free antenatal and delivery programme benefits everyone including SWOFON members same as the free education from primary to SS 3.
“This government has built roads to farming communities that were once closed up such Awba-Ofemili. Amansea road leading to Ufuma and other places where farmers have suffered losses because they could not evacuate their products have been opened up. Markets are open in those areas for robust business.
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.
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.
