Nigerian government has been urged to support grassroots agricultural development to boost harvest and support efforts towards food security for citizens.

National Coordinator, New Dawn for Women and Community Intervention Initiative (NEWOMCII), a Non-Governmental Organisation dedicated to women youth empowerment, Hajia Saadatu Adamu Bokane, who spoke with The Guardian during a courtesy visit, said the country’s economy can improve if efforts are diverted towards empowering women in agriculture, art, craft and creativity.

Bokane, who came in the company of the National Secretary, Mrs Chinwe Osuji, also harped on the organisation’s National Launch and Book Unveiling programme scheduled for April 28, informed that NEWOMCII was motivated into community interventions by the visible gap between rural women’s potentials and lack opportunities, limited access to resources and poor information base to actualize such potentials.

Founded months ago by Alhaji Bolaji Raji, NEWOMCII is fast becoming a household name through its empowerment and other social interventions around the Federal Capital Territory, chosen for its pilot project.

Bokane said the founder and chairman, Raji has been involved in charity works before now, supporting less-privileged Nigerians privately.

According to her, NEWOMCII was registered to expand his scope of interventions across the country through partnerships and supports.

“Raji is someone who grew up among female relatives. So, he acknowledges the role of women in the society and he felt the NGO should be women oriented because women are result oriented.”

Currently, NEWOMCII focuses on agriculture, art, craft and creativity as major thematic areas due to its neglected situation. “We felt that the art and culture sector have been neglected over the years. The contributions of women in art, craft and creative industry have been so silent for so many years.

“Nigeria as a nation is supposed to diversify into art, craft and creativity. There are lots of funds lying idle in UNESCO for cultural promotion, and Nigeria is one of the countries contributing to UNESCO. Yet, we seemed to lack ideas of what we are supposed to tap into.

“Before the emergence of white collar jobs, rural dwellers were sustained by indigenous arts and crafts”, Bokane said.

She expressed worries that although rural women contribute immensely through arts and crafts to support national economy without recognition, they lack access to necessary facilities for mass production, finishing, promotion and marketing to make them financially self-reliance.

“So, we felt that we should touch these categories of people in our society. If you go deep, back into history, women were the ones that discovered agriculture.

“In the two areas of our focus, we have touched about five Area Councils in FCT. We started the pilot projects in FCT because we believe it is the heartbeat of the nation.

“One of our intervention projects held in Bwari Area Council, where women were supported with the equipment for harvesting rice and corn processing.

“They were 45 in number, out of which 20 were widows. In the course of our discussions with them, we understood there hasn’t been any government or NGO intervention in these areas since they started the rice and corn farming and processing.

“We were the first to reach out to them and within 10 days, we supplied them with the necessary equipment. They had complained of farm implements to harvest their produce, which we provided to their excitement.

To ensure sustainability, the NGO said monitoring mechanism were put in place.

“We have monitoring and evaluation team, who visited them the second time to ensure they are making good use of the implements provided for them, and we were surprised to see the level of improvement they have made.

Through the help of the machines, they harvested much in a short period and even loan equipment to other farmers in the neighbourhood.

The use of machines also saved them time and energy and if such is sustained, there would be enough food for local consumption.

Aside Bwari, the organisation equally visited a community in Karu, where women were empowered with modern facility to ease their work of art and craft.

Although NEWOMCII has been in operation for less than one year, it has impacted a lot of communities and its target is to go nationwide in no distant time.