Hajia Hazarat Momoh, leader of the women farmers drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state made the appeal at the Annual Women Farmers’ Forum held on Friday in Lokoja.
She said the 2013 meeting was facilitated by Actionaid Nigeria and Kogi-based Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID), an NGO, in collaboration with the state Ministry of Agriculture.
Momoh said the women farmers organised themselves into groups to be able to participate in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of Federal Government of which the GES is a critical component.
She said the scheme was designed for the specific purpose of making affordable, agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and hybrid seeds through the e-wallet system, to registered farmers.
Momoh said that the major goal of the GES was to increase yield per hectare for all Nigerian farmers.
She, however, expressed concern that none of her registered members in the state received fertilised for the 2013 farming season.
Rachael Tokula, the Director of Women in Agriculture in the ministry, commended praised members of Women-in-Agriculture and Small-Scale Women Farmers Association of Nigeria (SWOFAN) for their commitment to agriculture.
She advised them to always liaise with the Ministry of Agriculture instead of the Ministry of Women Affairs to pursue their demands.
After a careful evaluation of the impact of GES scheme on the ATA, the participants identified some areas to be enhanced.
They listed inadequate awareness, distance between benefi ciaries and agro-dealers, communication, time of delivery and quantity of the inputs, among others, as areas to be improved upon.
In his opening remarks, the Executive Director of PIBCID, Victor Adejoh, said that the 2013 forum was aimed at enhancing the involvement of women farmers in the GES scheme.
Alemeru Olusegun of the GES unit of Federal Ministry of Agriculture assured the women that his ministry was committed to improving on its services.
