The Bauchi State House of Assembly has expressed readiness to adopt gender-sensitive legislation to encourage women’s participation in agriculture.

The speaker, Abubakar Sulaiman, said this on Monday during an advocacy visit by the Budget Committee Group (BCG).

He said the House would prioritise the recruitment of extension workers and other interventions to support women, given their crucial role in agricultural development.

Mr Suleiman said the measure was imperative to ensure that targeted women farmers benefit from agricultural intervention programmes.

He said the House would also introduce a dedicated budget code for women farmers in the state.

However, Tabawa Atiku, the group’s chairperson, decried existing gaps in the 2025 budget approved by the legislators.

She said a review by the BCG and women farmer cooperatives indicated that only 1.6 per cent of the budget had been allocated to agriculture, which is below the 10 per cent endorsed by the Malabo Declaration.

Ms Atiku also said the estimate failed to provide a specific budget line for women farmers and capture key components such as labour-saving technologies, climate change mitigation, and agroecological practices critical for sustainable agricultural development.

She, therefore, urged the state government to increase budgetary allocation to the sector and adopt proactive measures to enhance farmer access to inputs/credit facilities and reduce post-harvest losses.

(NAN)