By Felicia Imohimi

Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON) has urged the three tiers of government to invest in community-level storage and processing infrastructure.

SWOFON said the gesture would reduce reliance on middlemen and improve income retention capacity of smallholder farmers.

The organisation made the call in Abuja at the presentation of a Community Scorecard tagged, “Smallholder Women Farmers (SHWFs) Access to Post-harvest Loss Reduction Support in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between 2022 to 2024”.

Experts say smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model.

The scorecard was presented by Chika Orji, Lead Co-Creator and Team-Lead, Scaling Up Public Investment in Agriculture Project (SUPIA).

Orji said data on the scorecard revealed that 66.7 per cent SHWFs from Abuja Municipal, Bwari and Kuje Area Councils rated government post-harvest losses support as inadequate.

She said based on the scorecard challenges faced by SHWFs included middlemen taking advantage of the farmers due to lack of post-harvest losses reduction facilities or support.

Other challenges, according to her, are insufficient processing equipment such as rice milling and “garri” processing machines, grain dryers, limited access to good road infrastructure and absence of warehouse facilities.

“Other challenges are unavailability of solar panel, deep freezers and cold room and other storage facilities for livestock; reduced presence in the number of off-takers for market opportunities.

“Also, lack of access to markets and linkages, absence of warehouse, insecurity and safety concern, weak government interventions through policy, poor inclusivity of women in decision making,” she said.

Orji also recommended that government at all levels should prioritise addressing insecurity and mitigate farmer-herder conflicts within farming communities.

The team lead further recommended for investment in the construction and rehabilitation of rural access roads to farming areas in order to ensure food security.

“Government interventions should be expanded beyond tomato processing to cover a wider range of crops, livestock value chains and agro-processing skills for women farmers.

“Government policy must be changed to emphasise agriculture in such a way that access to infrastructure reduces post-harvest losses,” she said.

She said records indicated that though from 2022 to 2024 there were budgets for agricultural extension and post-harvest loss reduction in FCT, there was no available information regarding actual release of the funds.

“We recommend that both local and sub-national governments must ensure full implementation of budget lines dedicated to post-harvest loss reduction.

“We recommend that government should promote inclusive financing mechanisms such as grants, low interest loans or revolving funds tailored for SHWFs and their cooperatives,” she said.

Orji said the scorecard was co-created through a participatory process led by AAN and SWOFON under the SUPIA across FCT.

She said the objective was to assess SHWFs access to post-harvest loss reduction support in the territory and advocate improved access to post-harvest loss reduction support by the farmers.

“It is meant to provide information of SHWFs rating/scoring on access to post-harvest loss reduction support to government officials, the media and the public.

“Also, it’s meant to strengthen women’s voice in governance by building their capacity to influence agricultural policies and advocate targeted interventions that reduce post-harvest losses,” she said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Esenvosa Izah/Uche Anunne