AS Nigeria joins the rest of the world today, October 15, 2015 to commemorate the International Day for Rural Women, the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Women Rights to Education (WREP), Women Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON) and Gender Equality Peace and Development Centre (GEDPC) have called on the Federal Government to support rural women in small holder farming to address hunger and poverty in the country.
 
According to the Founding Director of WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi: “There is need to give special focus to the critical place occupied by rural women in the struggle to reduce poverty and improve food security in developing countries. Over 50 per cent of Nigerian women live in the rural areas and perform about 70 per cent of agricultural labour force. In spite of their roles, they lack access to agricultural inputs and finance; they have less than 14 per cent land holding rights while culture, traditions and discriminatory laws continue to deny the women equal access to government programmes at national and state levels.”
 
Also, Mimido Akchapa of WREP stated that over 70 per cent of land in Africa are held under traditional titles and customs controlled by men, saying: “This is also applicable to Nigeria where in some instances, over 90 per cent of land are held and controlled by men while women as wives or daughters in many communities have little or no access over such land. They continue to suffer in silence due to discrimination on the basis of their gender and not because they have less strength or intelligence to perform rural activities in the agricultural value chain.”