Women seek 50% inputs allocation

Farming Reporter
WOMEN in farming have called on the Government to allocate at least 50 percent of inputs specifically to women as they are the backbone of agriculture and to also avoid gender discrimination which is still rampant especially in rural settings.

In an interview, Zimbabwe Indigenous Women Farmers Trust founding president Mrs Depinah Nkomo said while Government has done well in supporting farmers, there was a need to focus on women when distributing inputs.

“The Government is doing well in supporting farmers but the problem comes when distributing the inputs. Most of our members have complained that in most rural settings, headmen and other community leaders rarely recognise women farmers. There is a need for deliberate policy to ensure that a certain portion, maybe 50 percent is allocated to women farmers,” she said.

The Government has a number of initiatives to support farmers especially those that are maginalised in an effort to boost production. Last year, the Government adopted the Intwasa/Pfumvudza to address the problem of low production and productivity which continued to negatively affect food security in the country.

Under the programme, each household receives a standardised input package of 5kg seed, 50kg basal and 50kg top dressing fertilizer. Mrs Nkomo added that the land re-distribution should also focus on giving more land to women.

“We are doing most of the farming especially in rural areas so the Government must recognise this when there are any programmes to support farmers.”

Mrs Nkomo also said her organisation which now boasts of more than 30 000 members across the country was planning to avail funding through their micro- finance institution.

“We have been doing small projects and we have supported many women farmers with funding ranging from US$100 each. We are now planning to increase to about US$150 and US$300. They repay in three months and more farmers are benefitting.”

She said the farmers were also working with the Women’s Bank which was recently launched by the Government to support women businesses.