The Small-scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria has appealed to the government at all levels to facilitate the availability and accessibility of farming lands specifically for smallholder women farmers’ cooperatives.

The group’s National President, Fatima Gunmi, made the call during an interview on Thursday in Abuja.

Mrs Gunmi said the gesture would enhance women’s chances of land ownership and control and boost food production.

The president said that the cost of leasing land for farming in most states has risen significantly from N20, 000 per hectare to N35, 000, and N40, 000.

She identified the increment as a major challenge in enhancing food production.

The president said that the increment represented a percentage increase of approximately 75 per cent to 100 per cent.

Mrs Gunmi identified labour-saving machinery, exorbitant prices of agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides as factors diminishing agricultural productivity.

She urged the government to invest in gender-friendly and labour-saving machinery, to increase the productivity of smallholder women farmers who contribute 70 per cent to 80 per cent to agricultural productivity.

“There is an increase in both manual and mechanised labour costs which smallholder women farmers cannot afford. There should be timely release of farm inputs to smallholder women farmers by the three tiers of government for this farming season,” she said.

Mrs Gunmi, who said the hike in fuel price prevented women farmers from engaging in dry season farming, said the situation would result in low dry season productivity.

She, however, urged the government to support smallholder women farmers with an irrigation farming system, including provision of solar-powered water pumps and solar-powered boreholes to boost irrigation farming.

(NAN)