The President of the Nigerian Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE), Barrister Vera Ndanusa, has called on the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, to help in the training of women farmers and provide them with machines to process their produce.
Vera was speaking when she led members of NAWE on a courtesy visit to the minister in his office in Abuja on Tuesday.
She said, “The aim of our visit is to strengthen women in the agricultural sector of the economy across the 36 states of the federation. We seek the inclusion of women in government interventions, as well as training and retraining of our women in agriculture in various value chains.”
She said NAWE had moved from a subsistence economy to mainstream economy, hence the seeking of the empowerment of women farmers with seedlings, inputs and tractors.
Responding, the minister said 70 per cent of the food production in Nigeria was by smallholder farmers of whom women were the majority.