Rural Women And Agricultural Development

The world recently marked the International Day for Rural Women; a day set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the contributions of rural women in enhancing agricultural development, improving food security and alleviating poverty.

The UN General Assembly, had in 2007, set aside October 15 as International Day for Rural Women to highlight the role rural and indigenous women play in ensuring food sufficiency, galvanizing integrated youth employment through agriculture, increasing opportunities for wealth creation, mobilizing multi-sectoral business participation and economic development, and thereby fighting hunger and poverty.

In his remarks to mark the day at the UN headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said that eliminating discrimination that prevents rural women from realizing their full potential was crucial to ending global hunger and poverty, adding that, “by denying women their rights and opportunities, we deny their children and societies a better future”.

“The reality for rural women is that they do not own the land they farm on, and are denied the financial services that could lift them out of poverty,” Ban noted, stressing that, “rural women often live without the guarantee of basic nutrition, health services and amenities such as clean water and sanitation.”

He emphasized that “when food and nutrition security are improved, rural women have more opportunities to find decent work and provide for the education and healthcare of their children”, adding, “with equal access to land, credit and productive resources, rural women can increase their productivity and sell their goods.”

The Tide agrees no less with the UN scribe and wish to join all well-meaning persons to commend the UN for  recognizing the role of rural women.  Added to the  fact that most rural women lack requisite skills necessary to render these services and struggle to support their families, makes this recognition most deserving.

In Nigeria, the average rural woman is the breadwinner in  some cultures: providing for the education, healthcare, and general well-being of the family.  The rural woman also struggles to feed the nation by making her produce available to the markets with little or no incentive.

Perhaps, there can be no better time than now to protect  the rural women’s rights and improve their status, essentially because the nation needs to, of necessity, meet the 2015 deadline set to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in that direction.

The fact that the Federal Government recently announced the dedication of five million mobile telephones to farmers  especially rural women during  the celebration of the World Food Day underscores government’s acceptance of the fact that rural women hold the key to the nation’s quest for food security and the reduction of hunger and poverty. 

But with the rise in population and the increasing difficulty of getting the best yield from the ground in parts of the country, the responsibility of providing staple food for the population can no longer be left with the rural woman alone because, she is ill-equipped for the demands of the time.

The Tide, therefore, expects that governments at all levels would do  more to address challenges facing the rural women. Government should support their efforts by making  access to land easy. They also need improved seedlings, planting materials and access to interest-free loans, as well as technical support.    

We expect that even the private sector and  civil society groups would participate in promoting agriculture by collaborating with government to invest in large-scale farming. They can also help in improving the rural farm environment through innovative technologies to boost agricultural development.

We must, however, commend the Rivers State Government’s bold initiatives in this area. The plan to develop agriculture as an alternative source of revenue to oil and gas, and a major opportunity for employment generation and wealth creation is commendable.

We note with particular interest the government’s action to revamp the moribund RISONPALM in Ubima, sustainance of the Songhai Farm in Bunu-Tai, developing the Banana Farm in Sogho, the proposed farm settlement in Etche, and the fisheries projects across state. The interesting aspect is that even in these actions the rural woman is eminently factored in effectively.