Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Director of the Agribusiness Incubation Centre, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Dr. Philips Nto, has urged Igbo women to use the annual August meeting to boost food security in their respective communities.
This, according to him, can be achieved by teaching rural women the benefits of value chain addition in agriculture and how to enhance food production generally.
“Now that the greatest challenge facing Nigerians is food, women should lead the campaign to get rural women back to the farms again,” Nto said.
The former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development in Abia State, who spoke to newsmen in his office, noted that traditionally women were an important segment of labour and the agricultural value chain, and urged them to return to that role.
He said that the August women’s meeting should be anchored around ensuring food security and sovereignty as the major agenda.
He advocated the revitalization of the Umuada system, employing it as a tool for enhancing agricultural productivity.
“The Umuada system is a veritable tool through which women can form cooperative societies and farm labour rotations with which they can boost food production,” he said.
“Previously in the South East of Nigeria, the August meeting was an avenue through which women constituted the engine of growth for agriculture, specializing in crops like cassava, cowpea, three-leaf yam, vegetables, and maize, among others, for year-round production. I believe we should resuscitate it,” he submitted.
Dr. Nto, who is the immediate past Provost of Abia State College of Education (Technical), Arochukwu, called on all tiers of government to support women’s cooperative societies to ensure they contribute to food security in Nigeria.
He disclosed that the Agribusiness Incubation Centre at MOUAU will always assist the women with expertise in modern farming methods, including the provision of high-yield seedlings.
