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Friday, May 3, 2013

Four Ministries sign MoU to provide mobile phones for women farmers



The Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development (FARD), Finance, Communications Technology and Women Affairs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the provision of mobile phones to one million women farmers in 2013.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, confirmed this to NaijaAgroNet, disclosed this at a gender and agriculture dialogue organised by the World Bank in Abuja on yesterday, Thursday.

The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Ms. Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, said the bank would invest $1m, about N1,500,000 million in the nation’s agricultural sector in manners that would benefit women farmers in the next three to five years.

The minister, who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs. Ibukun Odusete, said women farmers lacked access to finance and technology and were, hampered in their productivity.

He listed several efforts being made by the Federal Government to address the inequality of the womenfolk in agriculture which include the provision of mobile phones and access to finance.

“As you know, the government has ended the corruption in fertiliser distribution. We took government out of procurement. Before, only 11 per cent of farmers had access to fertiliser. The private sector now sells fertiliser directly to farmers,” he said.

Also, the minister pointed out that women do not have access to mobile phones, stressing that his ministry is working hard to address this inequity.

“In 2013, the ministry will endeavour to reach at least one million women farmers to ensure that they have access to mobile phones,” he assured.



Remmy Nweke/NaijaAgroNet,
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

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