Gilbert Ekugbe
The National president of the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), Mrs Fatima Gummi, has blamed the spate of insecurity in food producing States for the nation’s low yield and increasing food inflation rate.
She stated this in Abuja at a parley tagged “The Impact of the Current Economic Hardship and Food Crises and Inflation on Smallholder Women Farmers in Nigeria.”
She decried the alarming insecurity in the country, adding that the menace had made smallholder women farmers vulnerable thereby making it difficult for them to access farmlands and incurring losses.
The SWOFON boss however, recommended that government should declare state of emergency on insecurity that was preventing smallholder farmers especially women from accessing their farms.
According to her, the current hardship has led to lower crop yields and reduced market access, resulting in a decrease in incomes for smallholder women farmers.
The conditions of livelihood of most smallholder women farmers are deteriorating, reaching a point where we struggle to provide food, access healthcare, and afford our children’s education.”
She attributed the rise in food or inflation on a year-on-year basis to increase in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, oil and fat, fish, meat, fruit, coffee, tea, and cocoa.
“SWOFON deems it imperative to highlight the severe effects on smallholder women farmers across Nigeria. In spite of President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security in July 2023, the situation persists unabated.
“According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the food inflation rate in January 2024 was 35.41 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The figure was 11.10 per cent points higher compared to 24.32 per cent recorded in January 2023,” Gummi said.
Gummi said that the 2024 Cadre Harmonise Food Security report predicted that approximately 31.5 million Nigerians would face food crisis situations between June and August with 24.7 million already grappling with such conditions from March to May.