Kaiama (Kwara) – The Smallholder Women Farmers Association in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara, has called for the establishment of shea butter and soya beans processing centres in the area.
Mrs Zainab Yahaya, Coordinator of the group, made the request when they paid a courtesy visit to the Chairman of the Kaiama Local Government Area, Alhaji Alhassan Bagudu in Kaiama on Monday.
Yahaya said such centres would ease their farming activities in the area.
She explained that they were there to intimate him of the group’s existence, and called on the local government to always consider women farmers in policy formulations and budgeting.
“There are lots of challenges we are facing as women farmers. We lack access to farm inputs. We cannot benefit much from the Federal Government’s Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES).
“We also want extension services as well as adequate access to market because most of our roads are not motorable, making it difficult to move our farm produce to markets’’, she said.
Responding, Bagudu acknowledge the effort of the facilitator that brought the women farmers together under a single umbrella.
The chairman promised that the council would roll out its support plan for the group before the next farming season.
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He also pledged the commitment of the council to resolve the challenges facing the farmers as enumerated by its leader. (NAN)
