Ahead of today’s ECOWAS’ Heads of State Summit in Abuja, the Pan African Rural Women Assembly (PARWA) has called for immediate and sustainable land empowerment policies for economic leverage, poverty alleviation and fight against hunger.
The organisation made the call yesterday in Abuja at a joint conference organised by OXFAM in Nigeria, GROW, Global Conference of Land and Water Struggles, My Land My Life and Women to Kilimanjaro.
The Chairperson of PARWA, Nnnena Lovelyn Ejim, said despite many promises, identified challenges remain unattended to. She said records showed that women represented more than 60 per cent of the agricultural labour in sub-Sahara Africa, but that less than 20 per cent of women farmers owned farms.
According to her, whereas women herders who alone almost managed milk production and played an increasing role in small ruminants breeding and poultry farming, did not know at all or have little knowledge on how to secure protection of breeding pasture.
