Small Scale Women Farmers Association of Nigeria (SWOFON), have dropped the hoe for mechanised farming for increased food production, according to Mrs Mary Afan, the National President, SWOFON.
Afan, who disclosed this known on Tuesday in Abuja, at a SWOFON-organised event tagged “Retire the Hoe to Museum”, called on the federal government to provide women with mechanised farm implements to increase food production.
”We want the government to give us women friendly equipment that will save our energy, after working hard on the farm, we still go home to take care of our homes. Women farmers are tired of using the local hoe for farming, we are saying the hoe should be kept in the museum for our children. we can longer use the hoe, it makes us grow old, we want to rest and improve production to attain food security. We today significantly retire this hoe to the Museum, as farmers we want the federal government to give us mechanised farming to increase production on our farms to feed the nation”.
She noted that women play a significant role in the country and their needs should, therefore, not be taken for granted.
”Today is a significant day for retiring the hoe for mechanised farming, to add value to farming, we have noticed that hoe farming is tasking us, the population is increasing so we can no longer use the hoe for our farming. We have come to retire the hoe to the Museum so that our generation will come and see that this is what we used before in farming”.
Afan urged the federal government to make new technologies available to women farmers, including power tillers, hand planters, processing machines to add value to production, adequate storage facilities for long lasting produce and packaging of produce to match international standard and market.
Responding, Mrs Agnes Hart, Director, Gender and Social Development Secretariat, FCT, expressed her happiness at seeing the women advancing, and commended them for all their hard work.
”What I will do for you as Director Gender, is to work with you so that your voice will be heard loud and clear, you are well organised and well packaged”.
She noted that today, 8 December 2020, would go down in history as the day members of SWOFON marched en masse to the Art and Culture Museum in Abuja to drop their hoes.
