 Nigeria is Africa's wealthiest and most populous nation with the fastest growing economy. Agriculture contributes 25.2 percent of the gross domestic product. The Nigerian agricultural sector holds the key to the country's drive for economic diversification. This is because of its role in ensuring food security, promoting industrialisation, providing jobs and fostering shared prosperity. Nigeria was part of the 2003 Maputo Declaration that mandated all African Union member countries to allocate at least 10 percent of their total annual budgets to agriculture. This was done as one of the ways to increase food's sufficiency in the continent. However, data shows that in the last two decades, Nigeria has consistently defaulted on this commitment. An average of 1.6 percent was dedicated to agriculture over the five years and capital releases average 56.18 percent. But even with the allocated funds, how much got to the farmers? Plus TV Africa spoke to five members of the Small Holder Women Farmers, SWALFON, to find out if they got access to training, funds and equipment. I'm not going to say for the Angkor Borah school program. There was a time that they came for the, some people organised, I think they are agents of, they organised it, they came here to our place here, to do the training for us. But after that, nothing, we have not been affected at all from Angkor's Borah. We are about it, but nothing from there. Like the CBN Nesando, I went for the interview, did everything, but nothing from now. You tell us that they have been hold on since 2019, and maybe because of last year's pandemic and everything, but since that time, nothing from there. I have collected loans from Bank of Agriq. I'm not collecting from NICE, that was part of those that were supposed to collect after, after around April. But because of this pandemic, I told them they should hold back to their loans first. Let me see what the economy will look like before I can go and collect loans. Bank of Agriq, I collected loans from Bank of Agriq. It's one of the loans, the loans I collected a lot is in constructing my smoking claim, the smoking claim behind. So it was part of the loan. I collected about 300,000 from Bank of Agriq. The smoking claim was to cost about 750,000. So they gave me 300,000, then I now added the balance to do my smoking claim. That was in 2015. I have not received any form of loan from either state government or federal government. I actually applied for the CBN loan. I've gone to CBN for an interview. I have even received an offer letter. But that offer letter came just at the time of the lockdown, you understand? So when they kept calling job before the complete lockdown, I said, come and take the loan. I didn't want to take the loan. In fact, the CBN Abuja called me. Don't you want the loan? I said, I want the loan, but I can't take a loan that has a period of payment. You understand? You have given me some three, four months. We don't know what's happening when it's going to end, when business will pick up. And I'm going to pay back that loan with interest. So I declined the loan until the corona period is over. And that was just the first month of the corona lockdown. And it took a whole 11, 12 months before it came down. Business is just trying to pick up. I was able to benefit from CBN loan through Naxa Macrofenas. So with the course of things, materials, feeding, feed, in fact, the loan is even ineffective. How much did you get from Naxa? 3.5, which I didn't go anywhere. With the course of things, even if not that I have my own capital, did you not go anywhere? Can't even buy the most of the things I needed, like generator. Generator is three points, something which I'm even trying to get. That was one of the things I even processing. So even the DOC, when we applied for it, DOC data was 180, 200. That's a point, that's a day old for Brailers. But now it's 450. That time it was from 180 I even applied, I said 180 also, 200. By the time the loan came out, it was 420, 380. So I could not really, the loan was almost ineffective. It didn't go anywhere. When you go to Oshoru, if you go to Oshoru, if you go to Oshoru, there's a million places in the world where you can get money from Oshoru. You can't guarantee the cost. You can't guarantee the money, you can't guarantee the cost. I'm going to show you how to do this. We'll go to the next room and we'll share our information. This is a very important thing. We want to let everyone know that this is what we're doing. I hope that everyone will be able to understand that COVID-19 is a pandemic. I hope that everyone will understand that it's a pandemic. I'm going to show you how to do this. We don't want to end this. We don't want to continue to do this. We have not continued for very long. Nothing at all. I don't even think they know that we are really a sister. I think the state government is really close to the farmers. For very long, nothing. Uncle Boy is supposed to be from very long, but it has not really... We have not continued anything at all. All the loans that we have applied for, even with the NISRA, they've not been given out loans. They say they told them to hold on to the loans that they want those that have collected to pay back. So have we not assessed them between last year and this year? There is no bank to assist us to, because they are really afraid. This is a sky-high-wisky business. That's what they want to tell you. They want to come because it is living their life. So anything can happen anytime. So they are not ready to really assist us. Some banks will tell you that they have a Greek desk. When it gets there, they will tell you, sorry, madam. It's really when it comes to women. They will tell you, sorry, madam. That's where the Greek media comes in. They say, sorry, madam. Who is going to guarantee you? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We are women. We can't do much with it. We have anything happens. That's just it. For many who haven't accessed the loans, they rely on their local cooperatives. Thanks to my Obonga Cooperative, we do more something like what in Europe we can say, a job. Every month, we drop something. So when you need a loan, you can go and take a loan. No matter how small, it's still better than nothing. And at a very low one-digit interest rate, you understand. It's we-we. We do the contribution this month. Many people take, you take, you use it for your business, turn it over two, three months, you return, another person takes. That's how we have been helping ourselves. Thank God for Obonga because we are a cooperative. So most times what you do is that you borrow from there, you feed your fish, you return after selling the fish. But most times our major challenge is the cost of feeding. It is really, really challenging. I've not received any equipment, not even feed. I've not received. As for training, no. I've not received any training from either state government or federal government. I've not received any training. Apart from my, my cooperative meetings, agricultural, Obonga Women Cooperative, they give us training once in a while. Training. So that's just like personal, not government. The logo says train us on capacity building. That is proper recording how you keep records on your farm. And also, I think that's a training that we have had so far between last year and this year. Then the ones we have been having outside Lagos State is the one we have been having in Abruja. That some of our donors, that is IBP, also train us on the way and manner we're supposed to run our business and what the way we're supposed to run the business and also how to also move to government on how to get things from the government. So they also taught us on how to do that. On the 29th of July 2021, the Lagos State Government empowered farmers in the state. After the pandemic, we had to look for what is the next line of action, what do we do? We have lost almost everything on the farm. Even up till tomorrow, I cannot assess my rice farm because of the insecurity. And we have looked at what is the next line of action and that's why we decided to go and visit our Honorable Commissioner that said that she already understands our challenges and that she's looking into what she's going to do. During the pandemic, there were palliatives that were shared to farmers. The palliatives, they gave us some, some of the palliatives but you know, you can count how many people that was given the palliatives. But after our visit with our Commissioner, the Commissioner promised us that she was going to see to what she's going to do to farmers. So what they now did was that they took data of all the farmers that have been affected by the pandemic and also those that were not affected. And July 29th, that was last week, they empowered the farmers. We empowered with 400 bucks of fish fees, 100 bucks of poultry fees, smoking claims, collapsible tans. So those were things that we empowered as a group. So Lagos State is trying as much as possible to fulfill their promise in empowering farmers and trying to at least give them a space where they can see continue their farm. But in the line of the federal government, we are still looking at, the federal government has not done much because if they can do one third of what Lagos State has been doing for the farmers all over the states, we will know that yes, that we have something to fall back on. We are still advocating that this 10% of the budget will be set aside for our grid. That is the Malavo Maputo Declaration that the 10% of the budget will be set aside for our grid. We are still talking about that because that has not been met. So if they can meet up to that, we will know that yes, farmer has a lot to do. And we will also be happy that we will have enough food to provide for the government. So we are seeking and we are begging the government that they should still do more. I know that what the minister has done has tried to give us something, but you can imagine giving two treasures, one orange indicator and all that to more than 30,000 farmers from one state. How do you think we are going to share that? We are not political farmers, we are the real farmers. There are a lot of political farmers that they are working with and we are the real farmers. And I want to tell them that as far as we are the real farmers, things should come to us. And we should have a space, a place where, when they are making policies, women farmers should also be involved because we are the ones that are going through these problems. So they cannot be there and be dictating for us that we have to tell them what we want. And that is what we are trying to advocate for. We have to do this in the short making implementation and also formulation that those things will help us and we will tell them what we want. But if they stay there and dictate for us, that will not get to us. Nigerians depend on produce from local farmers for their daily meals has more than 80% buy their food from local markets. Now to ensure a sustainable economy post-COVID, the government on federal and state level must ensure that the policies are not just on paper, but the farmers benefit generously from every allocation and promise made.