MADE, PIND others hold Agricultural Forum in Niger Delta to Mark International Women’s Day
With funding from UKaid, Market Development Programme in the Niger Delta (MADE) is collaborating with Markets ll funded by USAID and Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) and the Edo State Cooperative Farmers’ Agency to hold a one-day agricultural forum for women, as part of activities lined up to mark this year’s International Women’s Day celebration.
The forum, which is billed to hold on Tuesday in Benin, the Edo State Capital has the theme, “Women Be Bold for Change in Adopting Agricultural Technologies” and will focus on increasing the awareness of available agricultural and outreach technologies for women in agriculture.
A statement signed by the Communications and Advocacy Manager of MADE, Mr. Fidelis Ekom said the forum also seeks to facilitate mindset change for women in the adoption of modern technologies and to facilitate engagement between women in agriculture and relevant value chain actors.
Ekom said the forum which will bring together women farmers in aquaculture, cassava, palm oil, poultry, honey and other value chains will dwell on the use of technology in boosting incomes and efficiencies in agriculture and also the use of information technology to enhance market and linkages for women in agriculture value chain.
He said the outcome of the workshop, which is organised in conjunction with the USAID Markets II project and PIND, will strengthen the capacities of the farmers and ensure adequate supply of information and adoption of agricultural and outreach technologies.
“The keynote presentation at the forum will add on the benefits of adopting technologies, reasons for low adoption rates and ways of improving adoption among women, particularly rural women,” Ekom said.
The statement said financial institutions as well as technology service providers have been invited to be part of the forum in order to ensure robust interaction between women and resource providers.
It explained that participants at the forum will also include government representatives, the media and other key actors from across the Niger Delta.
MADE is a DFID funded five year programme (2013 – 2018) using the Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach to generate sustainable inclusive economic growth at scale in the non-oil sectors across the nine Niger Delta States while PIND is a non-profit foundation established to provide support for socio-economic development programmes in the region.
PIND joined the world to observe the International Women’s Day (IWD) for the first time in 2015, and in 2016 it brought in Markets II, a USAID project which implements empowerment programmes that benefit a coalition of women organisations in Delta State through Chemonics and Working Fingers Initiative International (WOFII).
