Some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called on governments at all levels to concentrate on rural development to achieve the target of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).

The groups made the call in separate interviews with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday.

CSOs refer to institutions and organisations that interface between the state and business world and the family on behalf of the people.

They include NGOs, Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO’s), Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), gender groups, professional associations and policy institutions, among others.

Most CSOs are concerned with the monitoring of public spending and ensuring that government addressed the pressing needs of the populace.

Senior Programme Officer, Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication, Mr Adulrahman Ayuba said that the rural communities deserved the attention of the government since they produced the bulk of the food in the country.

Ayuba also said that government at all levels must learn to associate themselves with farmers in the hinterland and not just with their umbrella bodies.

He explained that that was the only way to identify the exact needs of the people instead of presumptions and misinformation.

Ayuba said that the concentration of access roads should be a major area of concentration in terms of development in the rural communities.

“Access to roads is very important. These farmers spend a lot of time producing but taking the produce to the market has always been a challenge.

“Most often, these things perish because the farmers do not have the means of transporting them to the market.”

He added that access to micro credit facilities determined agricultural growth, which would also help in sustaining development in the sector.

Ayuba further said that his group had been able to build the capacity of women farmers especially, in the country side, sensitising them on the Federal Government’s development programmes under the ATA.

He said that with much enlightenment, some farmers were able to form cooperative groups which constitute platforms to speak with one voice and make their demands at both the state and local government levels.

An advocate, Mrs. Charity Bello of the Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN), also stressed the for the Federal Government to capture the needs of rural farmers in budget allocations than just making assumptions.

Bello said that including these needs would help reduce hardship on the farmers.

“In fact, we will love it if the government can assess our needs and capture it the way it is, in the budget because, sometimes when you assume, you look at someone and think that what he or she needs is food.

“In actual sense, you find out that it is not food he or she needs, maybe it’s a shoe.

“But when you find out from us what our needs are and you put it in the budget, it tells us that the budget is open and that we are part of its process.”

Bello also said that the issue of access to water could not be overemphasised as the lack of the essential commodity affected the business of women.

She stressed that provision of water and sanitation facilities would enhance the work conditions of farmers.

“In these communities, you find women trekking for two or three hours to get a bucket of water.

“If the Federal and state governments can come to the aid of women in the provision of water, it will help them to participate more in their business.”

She also attributed the lack of water in some of these communities to the cause of the ill health of the people and the reason why some of them were unable to pay back loans to banks.