Smallholder Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), Ebonyi Chapter, has identified delays in the release of farm inputs from the Government, lack of access to agricultural credits and dearth of storage facilities, among others, as contributory factors to food insecurity in the Country.
The women farmers made this known in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State Capital at a one-day Stakeholders Interactive Meeting and Agricultural Product Exhibition as part of activities marking the World Food Day 2024 celebration in the State.
Chinyere Agbafor, the State Coordinator of SWOFON and Nnenna Ibiam, Public Relations Officer, further identified climate change, insecurity in farms, land saturation and unhealthy political interferences as also major impediments to achieving food security in the country.
They however appealed to the Government to address the challenges to save the Country from hunger and untold hardship, saying: “When you talk of climate change, it is one of the contributors, you also talk about insecurity and other internal issues like late distribution of farm inputs.
“In some places, women no longer go to farms for fear of being raped or even killed by bandits. Generally, the system is changing whereby land is no longer yielding her increase because, in most places, land is getting saturated.
“Politics is also one big factor affecting us because of undue interference in processes by office holders and inconsistencies in policies and programmes occasioned by frequent changes in government”, they said.
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