By Bisola Adeyemo
The National Assembly, Development Partners, Organised Private Sector, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Philanthropists, the media, other stakeholders will partner with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to implement gender policy in agriculture.
Dr Ernest Umakhihe, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, made the appeal on Wednesday, at the opening of a Workshop on “Implementation of the 11 Objectives of the National Gender Policy on Agriculture” in Abuja.
It will be recalled that the National Gender Policy on Agriculture was inaugurated by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Nanono, in October 2019 and the National Gender Steering Committee for the implementation of the policy was inaugurated on April 20.
His words, “The thrust of today’s workshop, therefore, hinges on charting a road map on roles, responsibilities of stakeholders and the timelines for the implementation of the policy as a demonstration of the ministry’s commitment toward engendering the agriculture sector.
The policy legal framework was based on recommendations of the National Gender Policy under the supervision of the Ministry of Women Affairs, Protocols and Treaties signed by the Federal Government on gender mainstreaming and the 1999 Nigeria Constitution as amended.
“These legal frameworks called for the development of the National Gender Policy on Agriculture to reduce the vulnerabilities of women and enhance food security,” he said.
“Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies were committed to the socio-economic empowerment of women and girls in the sector.
”We, therefore, recognise that gender mainstreaming is ‘Smart Economics’ and a prerequisite for eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable human development,” he said.
“75 per cent of the world’s poor (women) live in rural areas and are involved in farming, who mostly depended directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods.
“The Federal Government had re-positioned agriculture as a business with a return on investments as a Mantra- Agriculture as an alternative to oil, hence, gender mainstreaming in agriculture remained fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction,” Umakhihe said.