Women are poised to play a significant role in the economic boom to come through agriculture, as they are dominant players in the food value chain – from farm to fork. Across Nigeria, the World Bank estimates that women account for 30 to 50 percent of the farmers and entrepreneurs who are growing crops, raising livestock and selling food in local markets. But it is not all rosy for these women as they continue to face significant barriers to full participation and empowerment in the agricultural sector.
The most hindering being access to land, credit, entrenched gender inequalities, and access to markets according to a study by Makama, Godiya Allanana (2013). If you take the issue of financing for example, women are only able to access less than 10 percent of the credit offered to small scale farmers in the industry, Sahel Consulting reports in its newsletter (2014). According to the African Development Review (2015), female farmers in Nigeria get less than 10% of the credit made available to small-scale farmers; they are also dissuaded from applying for formal loans because of the density of the administrative process for appropriate loan sizes and their credit ratings.
Women are not well represented in farmer clusters and constitute a minority in agriculture cooperatives, leaving them with limited voices. According to the National Bureau of Statistics in 2017, only about 8,000 women can access agriculture loans compared to over 20,000 men in the same sector. The 2022 Nigerian Agricultural Journal, Volume 53 and number 2 cites access to land is a critical factor for female smallholder farmers as it enhances access to credit, and it is one of the most accepted collateral's for loan approval. In most parts of Nigeria however, land is primarily communally owned and can only be allocated to male members of the community/family, while women are excluded.
Another major challenge is insecurity as acknowledged by the Premium Times news report. Women who managed to own lands have been forced off the land and farm produce over safety issues. Women have also suffered varying degrees of gender-based violence from criminal elements. While the challenges of women in agriculture are multifaceted, a recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has however revealed the major reason women farmers have restricted progress in a job they are so good at: only a small portion of development funding for food and farming initiatives accounts for the prominent role of women and their gender-related barriers. This is simply saying women empowerment should be at the center of development funding and agricultural policies.
