Nasarawa Women Farmers Record Gains In Land Access, Budget Engagement – Report

Smallholder women farmers in Nasarawa State have recorded significant achievements in savings, access to land and budget advocacy, according to the SWOFON Impact Assessment 2019-2025.

The report, titled From Participation to Delivery, assessed the partnership between the Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), and the International Budget Partnership, IBP, under the SPARK initiative.

According to the report read by Hajara Ramson, SWOFON’s Technical Officer, the intervention covered five focal states – Nasarawa, Niger, Anambra, Oyo and Jigawa.

On economic empowerment, the report identified the Village Savings and Loan Association, VSLA, as the most tangible contribution in Nasarawa.

According to the assessment, the VSLA model was purpose-adapted to Nasarawa’s context and has decoupled household cash needs from agricultural market timing.

The report stated that before the VSLA, some households sold crops at depressed prices during school resumption to raise fees. It stated that VSLA credit of N10,000 to N30,000 now allows members to hold produce until prices improve.

A SWOFON member was quoted in the report as saying: “We don’t care if our children are going back to school. We will just go and borrow and leave our crop. When the price rises, we sell it and settle the debt.”

On resource access, the report said the engagement led to allocation of communal land to women farmers at Kona in Keffi Local Government Area.

On budget advocacy, the report said SWOFON Nasarawa submitted its Charter of Demands and received acknowledgement from government, with the Charter included in state consultations annually.

According to the report, officials in Nasarawa associated SWOFON’s organised membership and visible participation in budget processes with greater recognition of its demands.

The assessment put Nasarawa’s agricultural capital budget execution rate at 72.6 per cent between 2021 and 2025, the highest among the five focal states. According to the report, Jigawa recorded 66.9 per cent, Niger 44.4 per cent, Anambra 29.3 per cent and Oyo 17.5 per cent.

The report said Nasarawa allocated N57.20 billion to agriculture out of a N960.09 billion total budget within the period, representing a weighted share of 5.96 per cent, below the 10 per cent Maputo/Malabo benchmark.

On sustainability, the report identified Nasarawa as one of two focal states, alongside Jigawa, where budget engagement appears sufficiently institutionalised to offer real prospects of continuity after the partnership ends.

The report said the institutional change was developed through repeated engagement rather than one-off advocacy events.