The Federal Government, alongside the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Women, has called for increased and sustained investment in Nigerian women farmers to accelerate the transformation of the country’s agrifood system.
The organizations made the call on Tuesday 15th of September in Abuja at the national commemoration of the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF) 2026, held under the theme, “Advancing Women’s Leadership and Economic Power in Nigeria’s Agrifood System.”
The event brought together government officials, development partners, farmer organisations, financial institutions and women farmer leaders to recognise the contributions of women to food production and advocate greater access to economic opportunities and leadership.
Representing the FAO Representative in Nigeria and to ECOWAS, Senior Programme Officer in the Office of Emergency and Resilience, Jimmy Owani, said the commemoration was both a celebration of women’s achievements and a call to dismantle structural barriers limiting their participation in agriculture.
Owani, citing FAO’s State of Women in Agrifood Systems report, said women account for about 41 per cent of the global agrifood workforce and contribute across the sector as farmers, livestock keepers, fishers, processors, traders, entrepreneurs and innovators.
He said women, despite their significant contributions, continue to face inequalities in access to productive resources, finance and decision-making.
According to him, agriculture contributes between 22 and 25 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and supports the livelihoods of more than 70 per cent of rural households, while women account for an estimated 37 per cent of labour in crop production.
“The gender gap in agricultural productivity costs Nigeria about $2.3 billion annually, equivalent to roughly two per cent of GDP,” he said.
Owani called for stronger collaboration among government, the private sector, financial institutions, farmer organisations and development partners to create an enabling environment for women-led agricultural enterprises to grow.
He also urged stakeholders to recognise women not only as contributors to agricultural production but as decision-makers, innovators, investors and leaders across producer organisations, cooperatives, agribusinesses, financial institutions and policy platforms.
FAO pledged to strengthen its support for women through climate-smart agriculture, financial inclusion, market access and gender-responsive policies.
In a goodwill message, IFAD Country Director, Mohamed El-Ghazaly, said women farmers remain central to Nigeria’s food systems, contributing to food production, agricultural processing, rural enterprises and community resilience.
Represented by IFAD Country Programme Coordinator, Chioma Adiele-Okpara, El-Ghazaly said women continued to face barriers to land, finance, technology, extension services, markets and leadership.
He disclosed that IFAD-supported programmes, including the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) and Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ), had reached at least 96,827 women.
Similarly, WFP Deputy Country Director, Edouard Thiam, said conflict, insecurity, climate shocks and rising costs had made it increasingly difficult for farming households in affected areas to remain productive.
Thiam said WFP had worked with farming communities across northern Nigeria over the past five years, with 128,000 women forming a major part of its interventions.
He said the interventions included the provision of seeds, fertiliser, equipment and storage facilities, as well as investments in irrigation, market linkages and resilience hubs.
Representing UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, Programme Manager Peter Mancha said women, who constitute about half of Nigeria’s population, remain severely underrepresented in decision-making structures.
Eyong noted that women account for about 70 per cent of farmers and dominate many agricultural activities at the grassroots, but often receive a smaller share of the value generated from agricultural production because men control processing and marketing.
She called for deliberate policies to move women from subsistence farming into commercial agriculture, alongside improved access to technology, climate-smart agriculture and finance.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security said the declaration of 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer was aimed at raising awareness, mobilising action and accelerating investment in women’s participation across Nigeria’s agrifood systems.
Represented by Deputy Director, Lands and Climate Change, Iyabo Lawal Muktar, the ministry said women play critical roles across the food system, including production, processing, trading, financing, livestock, fisheries, forestry, extension services, research, digital entrepreneurship, cooperative leadership and policymaking.
The ministry disclosed that it had validated a revised national gender policy for agrifood system transformation, alongside the GADEP declaration covering 2026 to 2035 and a gender component under NGC 3.0.
It identified securing women’s land rights, improving access to credit and insurance, and expanding opportunities in mechanisation and digital agriculture as key pathways to women’s economic empowerment.
Chairperson of the FCT chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Lady Perpetual Okafor, said empowering women farmers was essential to strengthening families, transforming communities and accelerating national development.
She noted that the FCT AFAN chapter had partnered with FAO for three years to organise farmers’ markets, creating greater opportunities for women to participate in the agrifood economy.
Okafor called for the IYWF commemoration to become an annual event, stressing the need to sustain efforts to empower women farmers.
Stakeholders at the event agreed that Nigeria’s efforts to achieve food security, inclusive agricultural growth and resilient rural economies would require greater investment in women farmers and improved access to land, finance, technology, markets and leadership opportunities.
