The Smallholder Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON) has urged the FCT administration to declare a state of emergency on insecurity to ensure farmers’ safety.

Olabisi Ogedengbe, the SWOFON coordinator in Gwagwalada, made the call at a news conference organised by WSOFON on Monday in Abuja.

According to Ogedengbe, such a declaration will address the looming food crisis and inflation in the territory.

Ms Ogedengbe, who decried the alarming insecurity and farmer-herder clashes in FCT, said the challenges had made smallholder women farmers vulnerable, finding it difficult to access their farmlands and incurring losses.

She identified the security challenge as a contributing factor to the current hike in the cost of food, among others, in the country.

Ms Ogedengbe stated that the livelihood conditions of most smallholder women farmers were deteriorating, reaching a point where they struggled to provide food, access healthcare and infrastructure, and afford their children’s education.

“The conference is to draw the attention of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the Nigerian government to the impact of the challenges affecting smallholder women farmers in FCTA,” she explained. “In light of the escalating economic challenges and the concurrent food crises and inflation, SWOFON deemed it imperative to highlight the severe effects on smallholder women farmers in the territory.’’

Ms Ogedengbe said recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that the food inflation rate in January 2024 was 35.41 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

“The figure is 11.10 per cent points higher compared to the rate of 24.32 per cent recorded last year January. Similarly, the Cable news in May 2024, reported that FCT experienced food inflation rate at 38.38 per cent. The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis started with the COVID-19 pandemic and was exacerbated by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, oil and fat, among others,’’ she said.

She called on FCT minister Nyesom Wike and the FCTA to deliberately invest massively in agriculture to ensure food and nutrition security.

(NAN)