Women Lead Agriculture in Nigeria Project

The overall goal of the Women Lead in Agriculture project is the strengthening of existing and emerging women mobilization platforms and smallholder women farmers associations for sustainable organising for change and policy influencing in the Agricultural sector.

Smallholder women farmers constitute a large percentage of agriculture labour force but they lack access to agricultural input and finance. Their rights to the lands on which they farm is very minimal. Issues that affect smallholder women farmers are not prioritized in policy formulations and they are rarely given the opportunity to participate in decision-making pertaining to the agricultural sector.

This model project employs interwoven strategies such as capacity building, policy engagement and public awareness to facilitate gender accountability, transparency, good governance and change in the Agricultural sector for development results.

Specific Goal

Increased women mobilization platforms and smallholder women farmers associations for sustainable organising for change and policy influencing in the Agriculture sector.

Key Objectives

• Strengthen the capacity of smallholder women farmers groups to engage policy makers to demand gender accountability in the agriculture sector.
• Improve the skills of smallholder women farmers to organise and engage policy makers for gender mainstreaming in Agriculture.
• Increase public awareness on the role and contribution of women to the agriculture sector and the gender implications of agricultural policies and programmes.

Implementation

The project is implemented in Benue, Enugu, Kwara and Osun States. The lead organisation is Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), with WREP implementing in Benue State. Activities include advocacy visits to the coordinator of Women in Agriculture at the State Ministry of Agriculture, capacity building workshops, and field visits to piggery, poultry and irrigation farms across Gboko, Ukum and Oturkpo LGAs.