By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
WAI in group picture with the MD,ADP, 6th left, followed by the national president of WIA and flanked by other members during the courtesy visit in Lokoja on Tuesday.
An NGO,Women in Agriculture (WIA), has sought for the partnership of the kogi State Agricultural Development Project (ADP), to boost women’s participation in the agricultural sector.
During a courtesy visit to the Managing Director of Kogi State ADP, Dr. Bello Ogirima George, in Lokoja on Wedsday, WIA National President, Dr. Esther Audu, emphasized the need for collaboration between the two organizations.
She said that the partnership aimed to empower women by providing access to resources, training, and support to bridge gender gaps in agriculture.
Dr. Audu expressed optimism that this collaboration would strengthen women’s contributions to farming, improve food security, and drive economic growth in the state.
She disclosed that WIA , which was inaugurated in the state in 2009 by former Governor Alhaji Ibrahim Idris,represents 10,000 women farmers with 70 per cent genuine farmers actively engaged in various agricultural activities, mostly in the rural areas of the state.
According to her, the NGO has various departments such as value chain,extension,farmers’ health insurance scheme, packaging, mechanization and marketing among others to make sure that women are actively engaged in farming.
Dr. Audu, who noted that for some years, there has not much of political will to carry WIA
along in the scheme of things in the state, called for a change in the narrative to boost food production in the state.
According to her, WIA recognizes that the state has adequate land and sufficient water, and planned to embark on irrigation farming with solar facilities, in partnership with an organization connected to the World Bank, which is subsidizing the cost of the solar facilities for the project.
She called on the management of ADP to support WIA in ensuring that the planned irrigation farming becomes a reality in the state, adding that she has submitted about 10,000 names of members of the organization for disbursement of funds for the programme to start.
“We want you to carry our project as a pet project because we belong to this state,henceforth, we will be keeping ADP informed about our programmes for a guide so that we don’t go astray,” she told Dr. Bello.
In response, the ADP boss promised to bridge the gap between WAI and ADP to pave the way for a strong and mutual relationship that would support the success of WAI programmes in the state but called on the NGO to key into the programme of ADP.
He emphasized that WIA must work in synergy with ADP to ensure that WAI’s programmes are inserted in ADP’s annual budget.
The managing director, however, stressed that no government will throw its money to NGO except there is a reciprocal expectation.”
He described WIA as an organization with members of probing integrity, with the calibre of members of the NGO, ADP can leverage on to boast that there are genuine farmers in the state that must be helped to achieve the aims and objectives of the NGO.
