Access to farmland: ERA/FoEN makes case for women

By Osaigbovo Iguobaro Benin

The Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has backed Community-based national and international organizations involved in the struggle for the right of women in rural communities in West and Central Africa.
At a four-Day sensitization workshop held at CERAO, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire which had representatives of youths and women’s organizations in Africa, made commitment to abolish violence against women in and around industrial oil palm plantations.
The project officer, forest and biodiversity, ERA/FoEN, Rita Uwaka in a statement, called for the abolition of customs that deny women (equal) women for been at the forefront of the struggle against poverty to enable them have access to farmland for cultivation of harvest.
Rita Uwaka in the statement which was made available to the Media, denounced alleged “imposition of curfew by oil palm plantations companies that limits freedom of movement”, with devastating effects on the wellbeing of the people living in host Communities.
It rejected expansion of industrial plantations and advocated for negotiations on land acquisitions that are inclusive, transparent that involves women directly in the decisions made about their land.
It also called for a deliberate policy that would eliminate extreme poverty through interventions in agriculture as well as discouragement of monoculture which it claimed destroys the fertility and threatens biodiversity.
The initiative highlights the barriers women face in decision making space and make their voices count on matters that concern them through the promotion gender inclusiveness.