Women Rural Farmers Lament Lack Of Credit, Loan Facilities

Posted by African Examiner African News, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Wednesday, July 19th, 2017

…Wants Implementation Of Malabo Declaration on Agriculture

Ignatius Okpara, Enugu, Nigeria

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Female rural farmers in Enugu State, South-east Nigeria, operating under the platform of Small Scale Women Farmers in Nigeria (SWOFON) have expressed displeasure over poor access to markets, as well as lack of credit and loan facilities.

They stressed that lack of loans to do business was forcing them to sell their produce at a giveaway prices.

Speaking Monday during a one day dissemination meeting of the body, the Enugu state chapter Coordinator of the group, Mrs Evelyn Nnenna Ejim, pointed out that poor access to the markets especially during the harvest periods when some perishable crops are in abundance was not an encouraging development for farmers.

According to her, because of the inability of the farmers to have proper access to the markets, as well absence of proper storage or preservation facilities, farmers who labored so much to plant the crops are usually forced to sell them at cheaper rates.

The SWOFON boss, in Enugu said the lack of credit and loan facilities, has remained a serious obstacle to their members, adding that many workers who applied for the ANCHOR Borrowers Scheme in the state were yet to obtain the loans.

She noted that despite the fact that many of the loan seekers applied many months ago, they were yet to get the loans, stating that they had expected the agricultural loan to come through the Bank of Agriculture.

Mrs Ejim , therefore, opined that if the Bank of Agriculture was having operational problems, the government should channel the loans through some commercial banks.

She used the meeting to appeal to the government to implement the Malabo Declaration on Agriculture which entails that 10 percent of the budget of all the involved countries should be sunk into agriculture as part of efforts to encourage agriculture.

The SWOFON President in Enugu State stressed that there was need for the implementation of the Declaration to enable Small Scale Rural farmers have access to their own percentage.