Women Inclusion in Agriculture Critical to SDGs of Poverty Eradication, Prosperity For All

To ensure Nigeria remains on track in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, experts have warned that the restriction and exclusion of women in decision making processes across the food value chain remains a major constraint to the attainment of the goals of poverty eradication and prosperity for all. Specifically, Director, SDGs Forum, Dr. Tayo Aduloju, gave the warning at a meeting of the High-Level Forum on the SDGs, organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Abuja, on Tuesday. Aduloju said the forum had observed that a number of factors, including gender-based issues, high imbalance in trade and foreign debt deficits in agriculture must be addressed and actions set in top gear to realise the SDGs in the country. According to him, a number of factors such as cultural restriction, patriarchy, societal norms and functions, especially in the rural areas, lock women out from benefiting from certain economic functions in the agriculture value chain, saying they must be urgently addressed. Speaking on the High-Level Forum, Aduloju described the meeting as a nexus between agriculture and food security, adding that it aims to consolidate evidence on where Nigeria stands with respect to food security as well as to proffer accelerated solutions to identified challenges. On his part, NESG’s Co-chair, Private Sector, Agriculture and Food Security Policy Commission, Mr. Omoboyede Olusanya, pointed out that chronic and acute hunger, among others, were on the rise in the country. “This increase is due to farmer-herder conflict, socio-economic conditions, natural hazards, climate change and pests, including COVID-19 pandemic which slowed down, halted or reversed the last few years’ hard gains,” he added. According to him, Nigeria is not on track to meet the SDGs without a sustained deliberate, decisive and collaborative approach.