Policy Priorities In Rural Women Empowerment Sustainability, Poverty And Food Security In Nigeria

Abstract

The indispensable role of women in agricultural, rural and economic development has roused attention in recent times. At least one-third the word’s rural households are headed by women whose productive and reproductive responsibilities provide for the entire family, community and informal and formal economies. The female gender can not be sidelined while discussing issues of poverty and food security. In like manner, equitability can not be divorced from sustainability as it is one major issue in sustainability. History has revealed that Nigerian women are not always allowed by men to exert themselves fully. Some encumbrances are placed on the road to development of the feminine gender by the society. Such inequities are structural institutions that represent patriarchal and hegemonic interests. Changes have to occur in order to address the socially embedded inequities experienced by women through the various empowerment strategies introduced by past and present Nigerian governments. There is a need to formulate and implement agricultural policies and programmes the priorities of which should include easy access of women to extension services, ICTs, credit and land among others.