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By Victoria Ojeme
The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy Ohanenye, has disclosed her Ministry’s plans to acquire and deploy mechanized farming equipments to drive its community-based farming initiative.
The Minister made the disclosure during a strategic meeting with community leaders, women leaders, youth leaders, vigilante members and representatives of the Nigeria Police drawn from 6 different communities within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Uju stated that the introduction of modernized farming tools will go a long way to avert stress for women who use bare hands for virtually every farming process and also improve production.
She said, “One of our goals is to save our women from further stress and to provide modern machines that will de-chaff, de-stone and parboil the rice before bagging them for the market. Our women have suffered enough and we must change the narrative by migrating from manual to mechanized farming.”
The Minister added that the machines will arrive within the month and will be deployed immediately after training the women on how to operate them.
She said, “With this, we can work towards food sufficiency in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policy thrust on food security anchored on the renewed hope agenda.”
The Minister also stated that the arrangement includes the procurement of Tricycles for women from select communities in the FCT who will be trained to operate the tricycles which will be accounted for as more tricycles will be acquired through the same process to empower more women.
She also invited the Police to provide security for the women in the course of operating the tricycles.
Under the farming scheme, women will be introduced to high-yield potato and rice farming through the provision of seedlings, land with boreholes and other irrigation facilities to ensure an all-year-round farming exercise with the FCT communities as a pilot scheme of the initiative which will be extended to Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi and other states in the country.
Responding, the Etsu of Jokoyi who also led members of his community to the meeting, Prof. Bawa Jetta commended the Women Affairs Minister for her resilience and determination to better the welfare of women and children in Nigeria.
He said, “With the leadership God has given you, most Nigerian women and vulnerable children will smile very soon. I have been monitoring your philanthropic activities over the years and was not surprised when you were appointed the Minister of Women Affairs because you fit into this position.”
Other community representatives drawn from Jikoyi, Galadimawa, Kobi, Kuje, Piagba and Karu also pledged their willingness to embrace the initiatives from the Women Affairs Ministry to upgrade the socio-economic status of women and children in their areas.