As the world marked the International Day of Rural Women a few days ago, I took some moments to reflect on the plights and prospects of women in Nigeria’s rural communities.
From the North to the South and whether in the city or rural hinterland, Nigeria boasts of hardworking women across all sectors. Indeed, in some communities, the involvement of women in agriculture, whether in production or value addition, has helped to ensure food availability and improved well-being of families.
However, before I delve into the prospects, I like to take a brief look at the solvable challenges faced by rural women, who, till today, contend with cultural limitations and other perennial challenges, like poor access to quality healthcare, sexual and gender-based violence, barbaric practices like female genital mutilation, and lack of basic amenities like good roads, power supply, potable water. While life is harsher, generally, for people in Nigeria’s rural communities, I empathise more with women, who have a lot more to contend with.
Drawing lessons from my visit to several communities, especially in the North where subsistence and commercial agriculture is more evident, I align with the position of the Food and Agriculture Organisation that while women constitute 43 per cent of the global agricultural labour force, they face significant discrimination in matters of land ownership, livestock ownership, equal pay, participation in decision-making entities and access to credit and financial services.
A woman struggling for acceptance, survival or freedom may be unable to raise responsible children. That partly explains the number of out-of-school children, wandering and creating a fertile pool for bandits and other criminals. This implies that the society suffers when women are disadvantaged, which emphasizes the need for governments at all levels and public-spirited private sector players to make genuine efforts to place rural women at the centre of their intervention programmes.
However, it’s not all gloom. During my recent visit to Awala in Awala Madugu Local Government Area of Adamawa State, I was amazed by the dedication of rural women in northern Nigeria to dairy production and how that venture has improved their livelihoods. I then imagined how genuine empowerment could improve their livelihoods and enhance local dairy production, saving us some forex used to import dairy products.
When we talk about milk production in West Africa, the Fulani tribe, predominantly nomads, comes to mind, with a huge population in Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Cameroon, among others.
While the males, by natural disposition, tend to the cattle, traversing the length and breadth of the country, their women, in spite of peculiar challenges, leverage their understanding and love for animal husbandry to boost dairy production. These women often use indigenous knowledge to select what herd of cattle to keep or sell, just like their proven techniques for milking and processing of the milk extracted from the cattle.
As much as traditional practices form a strong foundation for advancement, the integration of modern dairy farming techniques is vital for improving efficiency and productivity. Access to training programmes and resources would encourage women to adopt innovative practices such as artificial insemination, improved feeding systems, hygienic practices and modern milking techniques. These advancements lead to higher milk yields and better quality products, which are essential for meeting the increasing demand for dairy products in the local and international markets.
Picking on my experience in Adamawa State, the Fulani women in rural communities play a vital role in dairy production, especially by integrating their traditional knowledge with modern techniques. The women are primarily responsible for milking the cows, processing dairy products into milk and cheese, and marketing these products to contribute to their household’s income stream.
For instance In Awala community, the women rear livestock, and they have, for years, derived their livelihoods from this venture. However, with cattle rustling by armed bandits, climate change, and the harsh economic environment, this thriving means of livelihood for the family is increasingly becoming threatened.
Faced with this reality, the women have come to realize that they must adopt new measures to mitigate the rising impact of the challenges on their business. This therefore underscores the need for a change in the norm. These include training and other required support/intervention to ensure this means of livelihood is not taken from these women. An impact-driven institution based in Ibadan – the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, for example, provided a timely intervention to the women; a free, localized training was organized for 350 women through the support IITA received from the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The training was to equip the youth and young women with modern techniques in dairy farming, hygienic milk production, feed production using hydroponics, conflict management and business management.
The training was timely and in the right direction. Through it, the women have moved from being peasant to commercial dairy farmers after observing all modern practices. The milk production from their cattle increased from 15 to 20 litres daily. They now sell their milk at premium market price to Sebore Farms, which off-takes the product to augment its daily need.
On account of the training, the women have embraced record-keeping, hygiene and milk-handling processes, etc. Beyond these, they have also registered a cooperative, to ease their access to in-kind and cash support. Clearly, the importance of joining cooperatives to access support, especially in the agricultural sector, cannot be overemphasized. Since the formation of the cooperative, they have received hybrid cows, which boost their daily milk production, sales and profit.
Curious to know the impact of the training and their new way of life, I approached one of the women and her feedback gave me some hope. She said, “Our milk is now produced in a more hygienic environment. We sanitise the milking area and use clean containers and practices. The skills we learnt in handling the cow increased our daily milk supply and we are more conscious of taking care of the cows so we don’t lose the value of what we have now.”
More importantly, the cooperative is adopting best practices and leveraging collective efforts to improve members’ livelihoods while contributing to milk production in Adamawa State. The replication of such a success story in other states will empower more women and increase local production.
However, this introduction of modern technologies in dairy production has been met with mixed reactions. While some Fulani women are open to innovation like improved milking techniques, storage facilities, and artificial insemination, others remain hesitant due to cultural attachment to traditional methods and limited access to education, but sensitization efforts, combined with community-based approaches, have proven effective in gradually encouraging the adoption of new technologies, particularly when these changes are seen as beneficial to their livelihoods and reduction in their manual labour.
Despite these successes, it is imperative to encourage capacity strengthening and development in these nomadic communities by adapting technologies to their culture and tradition, especially those that can equip women with new skills and knowledge. Additionally, establishing clusters and cooperative groups will help to solve the challenges of access to market and finance, which will in turn help these women to sell their milk at premium prices.
As we celebrate the contribution of rural women to national development, the theme of this year’s edition ‘Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All’ is instructive. It is essential to bring to the fore the important roles they play in shaping the food systems. Therefore, capacity development that integrates traditional and modern technologies to increase productivity should be encouraged.
The decision by the two international organisations to invest their resources in women in local communities highlights the potential that others and the government may not have noticed. By encouraging women to learn and collaborate, we can ensure that the next generation of women dairy farmers are equipped to thrive in an ever-evolving agricultural landscape, both for their own well-being and local sufficiency.
