Stakeholders have called on the national and state houses of assembly to scale up yearly budget for agroecology and extension services to increase food production, reducing hunger and poverty across the country.
The stakeholders include House Committee on Agriculture Production and Services, FMAd, Action Aid Nigeria, Small scale Women Farmers Organization of Nigeria (SWOFON), All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Nigeria Agribusiness (NABG), Women Environment Program (WEP(, National Agency For Great Green Wall, Agricultural Development Program Managers (ADPs) from 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, among others.
The stakeholders stated this in a communique issued at the end of the end of a stakeholders meeting on Agroecology and Climate Justice and the Official launch of the Strategic Partnership for Agroecology and Climate Justice in West Africa (SPAC) West Africa Project organized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and ActionAid Nigeria yesterday in Abuja.
They emphasized the need to embrace agroecology, they maintained that although only 25percent of chemical pesticides are used by developing countries like Nigeria, the region experience 99percent of death from chemical pesticides adding that recent research by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 385million farmers were victim of acute poison in 2019 and most of them are from Asia and Africa.
They further noted that that 75percent of Smallholder Women Farmers surveyed in 2022 experienced some form of health challenges attributed to pesticide use.
They also called on the Federal and state executives, as well as the National and state houses of assembly to scale up yearly budget to to agroecology and extension services urging them to ensure timely release as a strategic approach to increasing food production, reducing hunger and poverty.
The Communique also urged the Ecological Project office to support the scale up of agroecology across communities in Nigeria towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.
They also canvassed for the re-introduction of the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) to address inputs gaps experienced by Small holder farmers especially the women and the youths and also urged that the National Agricultural Fund should have a major component to support and scale up agroecology across communities in Nigeria.
They however tasked FMARD to develop a pesticide policies and legislation to ensure that toxic pesticides are prohibited and phased out of Nigeria adding that private sector through public private partnerships should help promote agroecology.