NGO lauds Ondo Govt. over budgetary provision for women farmers

The Inclusive Agriculture  Cluster (IAC), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), has commended the Ondo State Government for budgetary provisions for agro-women farmers in the state.

Mr Franklin Oloniju, the Anchor of IAC in the South-West, gave the commendation on Thursday during a workshop for agro-women farmers in Akure.

The workshop was supported by USAID and Palladium in conjunction with the state government.

Oloniju said that it was commendable that the  state government institutionalised laws that had made the process of accessing funds for smallholder women farmers possible.

He said that the workshop was aimed at providing the women the opportunity to determine what the funds would be spent on after which the document would be presented to government to help actualise their dreams.

Oloniju, who said it would also go a long way in value chain addition to their individual products, added that the women had  particularly proven themselves over time to be dedicated and commiitted to achieving set goals.

He also lauded some foreign agencies for partnering with the state and interacting with the budget line for the good of women in agriculture.

The Agro-Women Network comprises different groups of women in agriculture across the 18 local government areas of the state.

Declaring the workshop open,  the Special Adviser( SA)  to Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on Gender, Chief Olamide Falana, gave an overview of the giant strides achieved by the state government.

Falana said that the state was the first state in the federation to allocate a budget line for women in agriculture.

She said that in order to achieve a seamless and judicious use of Agro-women budget line, it was necessary that the women should  cooperate and come up with a masterplan on how the funds would be processed and disbursed from the outset.

The SA asked the women to make the most use of the opportunity at their disposal, stressing “humanity cannot survive without agriculture.”

Also speaking, the Programme Manager of the Ondo State Agriculture Development Project (ADP), Mr Sola Adeniyan, said  that the workshop became necessary in order to engage the real farmers on the field and have their inputs.

Also speaking, Mrs Grace Oyediji, the state Chairperson for Smallholder Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria, thanked  the state Ministry of Agriculture and the USAID/Palladium SCALE Project for helping women farmers achieve their dream.

The event also featured a workplan development session where the women drafted the activities on how the Agro-women budget would be utilised

The intervention is to help Smallholder Women Farmers achieve seemless and judicious usage of Agro Women Budget line already mapped out by the state government and to encourage more women to take up agriculture as a career.