African governments pressured to support women farmers
African governments have been urged to support women farmers so that the continent can achieve sustainable social economic development.
Giving a keynote address at the first day of Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) Regional Conference yesterday in Dar es Salaam, the Nigerian Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said as governments and other stakeholders support farmers, they must recognise that the majority of African farmers are women.
“Without women farmers, Africa cannot unlock its agricultural potential,” he said. He told conference participants from all over Africa that empowering women farmers will change the nutritional status of children in rural households, as women spend greater share of their incomes on household nutrition.
“Women farmers need greater access to affordable credit, secure access to land, and labour saving, technologies for planting, weeding, harvesting their farms and processing food,” he said.
Stressing that there could be no future for African agriculture, if the Africa’s women farmers continued to be disregarded.
The conference under the theme “Financing African Agriculture” was organized by the Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT) in collaboration with SACAU.
