By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

WITH the increasing population at a geometric proportion across the country, some Nongovernmental Organisations, NGOs, Thursday, took it upon themselves to build capacity of over 30 women farmers in Jiwa community in Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on farming innovation and technology in according to best agronomic practices of global standards.

The capacity building took place at the Women Centre, Jiwa Community, and was organised by Centre For Accountability & Inclusive Development (CAAID), Development Initiative For Community Enhancement (DICE), Senema Productions, Small Women Farmers’ Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), with the theme ‘Embrace Equity Community Dialogue; Gender-Friendly Agricultural Innovations and Technology’.

Basically, the capacity building of the women farmers was to ensure women use the media platform whereby necessary information on new agricultural strategies is disseminated in order to promote innovations and technologies that would boost women farmers’ capacity and knowledge in the agricultural space.

However, participants were charged on owning a smartphone and bank account in order to be carried along in the current drive of a cashless economy and not left behind and stranded.

The Executive Director, DICE, Bosede Akinbolusere, said women farmers in Nigeria cannot be left behind because they are the engine-room of food production in Nigeria, and it has become imperative for all hands to be on deck to ensure they have access to modern agricultural production innovation, technology and advancement which is in line with the 2023 International Women’s Day’s theme, calling for inclusivity of women in the digital space.

Akinbolusere said: “In Africa and most developing world women are over-represented in farming, in agriculture. If these people that are there on the farm are left behind, there will be problems of food security in the future.

“That is why we decided to bring this dialogue to their doorstep to have a conversation with them, to see how we can be better farmers, and be technologically relevant in their agricultural business.

However, she appealed to both public and private sectors including Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, to see how that can transform current agricultural practices to modern practices that can boost food production rapidly and make women increase their profitability through expansion of their farming business.

And she added that this will empower more women along various agricultural value chains within a short time with technology.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director, Senema Productions Limited, Senami Ohiomokhare, everybody is needed in the digital space in all sectors, because everything is driven by innovation and technology, hence the need for women farmers to key into the trend and development.

“Needless to say, even at the level of these women, they can take pictures of their products when they harvest and share them with people. They can be taught how to use these things.

“With a smartphone, if you have animals you can even do an ultra-scan to know if the baby inside the animals is living well.

“You can use a smartphone to do irrigation on your farm to check where you can spread water across your farm. I believe with what they are taught, they will be able to replicate and improve on what they do.

“Now that we have done that there is a call to action and the call to action is for us to go back, and say these are the problems they have highlighted, and these are the solutions we have found to these problems”, Ohiomokhare stated.

However, she said, “To implement these solutions to help these women, we need partners; we need the banks for them to acquire a bank account. We will use what we have to call more partners like banks, network providers, and those in the tech space to help these women grow their businesses.”

Also, SWOFON’s Financial Secretary, Zainab Mohammed, in a remark appreciated the facilitators of the meeting as it has been impactful, “I have learnt a lot and I look forward to learning more. The reason why they came to my community is because of SWOFON. SWOFON is under ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, and we are in 36 States of the federation.

Mohammed who also doubles as rice, beans and soya –beans farmer pointed out that such meetings will create awareness for the women farmers.

“We have been enlightened on how to apply technology to grow our businesses, which will have a lasting impact and help us improve on our businesses.”