The National President, Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON), Mary Afan, has expressed the need to address the impact of fuel subsidy removal and the urgent need for palliative measures to support smallholder women farmers in the country.
SWOFON, a coalition of women farmers across Nigeria working to promote women-friendly agricultural policies, said on Tuesday in Abuja, that women have been affected more by the recent subsidy removal.
Mrs Afan warned that the implications of subsidy will include increase food prices and could also lead to unavailability as the the prices of transportation, goods and services have increased.
She said: “The move of the government has brought forth significant challenges for our nation’s agriculture and drive for food security. The ensuing rise in the cost of farm inputs and transportation has had profound implications, particularly on smallholder women farmers who are the backbone of our agricultural industry.
“The removal of fuel subsidy which has led to an undeniable increase in transportation costs, is unduly affecting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers who rely on affordable means of transportation to transport their produce from the farms to the market.
“Farmers, in general, have been unable to access farm inputs such as fertilizers, seedlings, and agrochemicals which are usually sold in urban and semi-urban areas.
“The movement to markets has been difficult. Processing of farm produce especially those that require petrol-powered engines has also been paralyzed by this policy direction.”
Adding: “Similarly, this new reality is further compounding the woes of smallholder women farmers in Nigeria who are still grappling with the high cost of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs whose prices has since become exorbitant following the Russia and Ukraine war. Consequently, the new policy move of the federal government has also severely affected the prices of farm inputs, causing them to become even furthermore exorbitant.
“As a result, smallholder farmers have been forced to reduce the size of their farmlands due to the high cost of input and transportation which could lead to
food insecurity, severe nutritional deficiencies, high poverty levels, and a further decline in farmers’ already challenging economic situation.
“As an umbrella body for smallholder women farmers in Nigeria, Smallholder women farmers are unduly affected by the adverse impacts of climate change, such as erratic rainfall, extreme temperatures, and flooding. This further compound the difficulties women farmers face due to the subsidy removal, making it imperative for the government to adopt resilient and climate-smart agricultural practices and roll out of interventions.
“We are deeply concerned that there is no strategy or framework in place to capture farmers, especially women farmers in the distribution of palliatives. Most worrisome is the fact that there seems to be no palliative measures such as inputs, improved seedlings and seeds to encourage farmers to increase production.”
Madam President also recalled how farmers lost a lot of their farm produce to flooding which happened at a time when many farmers were either getting ready to start harvesting their crops or just commenced harvest.
She added that the impact of such loss had varying psychological trauma on our members as many of them had taken loans, rented lands, hired equipment, and were unable to repay their debts.
She therefore pleaded with the government to swiftly implement targeted palliative measures to provide financial relief and assistance to smallholder women farmers, Considering the critical role of transportation in the agricultural value chain, the government should explore options for providing subsidies on transportation services specifically catering to smallholder women farmers, thereby reducing the cost burden on their operations
