By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AN agricultural based organization, Women in Mechanized Agriculture Association, WIMA, Wednesday , disclosed moves to ensure over 1 million women farmers access mechanized farming equipment to boost food production and profitability.

The President, WIMA, Dr Aisha Bako, gave the assurance while speaking about the association’s readiness to improve the living standard women with mechanized tools by 2030 at the Stakeholders Engagement Workshop held in Abuja.

Bako also noted that the association is keen on impacting the living standards of women, and emphasized that no woman is to be marginalized in having access to technology, finance, and opportunities.

She said: “Our target is for mechanization services to be a tool for earning revenue, for making a living, and increasing their livelihood.

“Our goal is to reach one million women by 2030, hopefully. We have a goal to directly impact food systems, household incomes, and climate resilience, also with national productivity.

“We are building a future where no woman is too rural, no woman is too poor, no woman is too marginalized to access technology, finance, and opportunity. So ladies and gentlemen, we’re here to talk about inclusion, but we’re not stopping there. We’re here to implement it.”

She however called on stakeholders to collaborate and enhance the efficiency of agriculture especially for women stating that the nation prospers when women are involved in agriculture and decision making.

“Most importantly, it is time to mechanize. Today, I extend this invitation to you all, all kinds of stakeholders to join us and partner with us. Let’s reshape agriculture together.

Meanwhile, she maintained that when women rise, food systems rise and when women mechanize their farm business there will be increased productivity, “and when women are involved in decision-making, nations prosper.”

In her remarks, the Chair, Board of Trustees, WIMA, Dr Aisha Umar, pointed out that agriculture contributes over 20 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

She noted that the workshop is a call to action, to dismantle those barriers, a call to celebrate the resilience of women who still till the land with their hands, but they dream of harnessing the power of machinery adding that the association will turn dreams to reality.

“We hope we will celebrate success stories, such as the solar powered tools and the digital platforms that are transforming farms across Nigeria.

“We plan to collaborate in breakout sessions to draft actionable solutions for policy reforms to technology adoption.

“We hope also to receive concrete commitments and pledges, because ideas without action are merely words”, she added.