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Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA, Ghana has said there’s urgent need to close the gender gap in the Agricultural sector in order to achieve food sufficiency in Nigeria.
Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo made this known while speaking on “Emerging Issues on Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainable Development” during the first international conference organized by Tai Solarin University of Education Center for Human Rights and Gender Education, CHURGE.
Dr. Akinbamijo said there’s need to close the gender gap in productivity because women are the major players in the private sector, particularly in agriculture and in informal businesses.
Buttressing on the need to bridge the gender gap in agriculture, Dr. Akinbamijo explained that ” there’s 70% arable land on the continent, 80% of fresh water in the world exists on the continent and 60 percent of the young population are in Africa, yet the continent lacks more than other continents in the world.
He explained the reasons for this could be alluded to the fact that “more than 80% of the population on the continent are working in the agricultural sector while about 70% are women. If this continues, there’s no way Goal 2 and Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals would be achieved.”
Akinbamijo said, there is evidence to indicate that gender differences not only disadvantage women but also reduce the growth potential of Africa as a whole.
“Gender related obstacles can frustrate the economic potentials of women as entrepreneurs and workers, with adverse impact on enterprise development, productivity, and competitiveness in Africa.
He recommended that “there should be co-ordination of programs or projects to integrate gender issues, define and track indicators for monitoring and evaluation of gender inclusion; conduct gender capacity audits to inform regulatory and policy framework by different actors in the sector.”
Earlier, Chairperson of the occasion, Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello said she hopes Nigeria would return to the good days of relying on Agriculture as the main source of revenue.
“There would be a time where oil would no longer be important and I hope we can rerun to the good old days where we rely on Agriculture.
“In Southern African, if you don’t have a farm, you’re not regarded as a successful individual and I’m looking forward to a a time Nigerians will be proud to go to farm and consider agriculture as a source of revenue”, she added.
She also added that there’s need to look into Land ownership and administrations to ensure women are not further dis-empowered.
Vice Chancellor, TASUED, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu commended CHURGE for organising the international conference which he said would address challenges faced in mainstreaming gender into various sectors of the economy.
Story by: Blessing Oladunjoye
