Agricultural policy researchers and gender specialists have called for urgent reforms to Nigeria’s agricultural frameworks, warning that while existing policies recognise the contributions of women and young people, weak implementation, inadequate financing and limited accountability continue to prevent those commitments from translating into meaningful change.

The calls were made during a side event organised by the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy Fellows, Cohort 3, held on the sidelines of the Africa Agriculture Science Week in Abuja.

The Executive Director of the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Professor Lateef Sanni, delivered the keynote address at the event, which brought together researchers, policymakers and gender specialists to examine gaps in Nigeria’s agricultural policies and explore ways to strengthen gender-responsive implementation across the sector.

The keynote address provided the foundation for discussions at the event, with speakers examining how existing agricultural policies affect women and young people across critical areas including access to land, finance, technology, extension services and decision-making.

Extension Policy Recognises Women But Lacks Measurable Action — Odebode

Presenting findings from a study on Nigeria’s National Agricultural Extension Policy, Professor of Gender and Agricultural Extension and Rural Development at the University of Ibadan, Professor Stella O. Odebode, said the policy recognises women and other marginalised groups but falls short in translating those commitments into measurable actions.

She said the study examined how the policy responds to the needs of women and youth in areas such as access to land, finance, technology, agricultural information and participation in decision-making. While the policy contains provisions for gender-responsive assessment tools, sex-disaggregated data collection and ICT-enabled extension services, she noted that significant implementation gaps persist.

Professor Odebode listed weak participation of rural women, the absence of measurable performance indicators, inadequate attention to climate and intersectional issues, poor access to land and finance, unclear budget allocations and weak accountability systems as major shortcomings. She said the policy acknowledges gender equality in principle but fails to guarantee women leadership opportunities, dedicated funding or effective accountability during implementation.

She recommended dedicated financing for gender inclusion, institutional support for women’s leadership, gender-responsive budget tracking systems and stronger monitoring frameworks, disclosing that she is already engaging the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and other stakeholders to fold the recommendations into national development frameworks.

Women Dominate Post-Harvest Work but Lack Technology Access — Aremu

Chief Research Officer and Zonal Coordinator at NSPRI, Dr Aremu Mariam Bukola, said women continue to dominate post-harvest activities across Nigeria despite facing severe constraints in accessing modern technologies. She noted that between 60 and 80 per cent of smallholder women farmers are engaged in post-harvest operations, yet many still dry their produce along roadsides for lack of proper facilities.

Citing recent survey findings, she said about half of smallholder women farmers lack access to the post-harvest technologies needed to reduce food losses and improve food safety. Her review of the National Gender Policy in the Agri-Food System Transformation (2025–2030) found that while the policy promotes gender equality and inclusion, it lacks clear implementation frameworks, measurable targets, dedicated financing and institutional accountability, scoring at Level Three on the Gender in Agricultural Policy Analytical Tool (GAPo), an indication of weak implementation functionality.

Dr Aremu called for evidence-based investment in women-centred post-harvest technologies, expanded access to finance, subsidised labour-saving equipment, stronger implementation mechanisms and greater participation of women across agricultural value chains. She noted that many women cannot afford improved technologies individually and rely instead on cooperative societies to access shared equipment.

Rice Development Strategy Fails to Centre Gender Equality — Tim-Ashama

Lecturer at Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri, Dr Akunna Tim-Ashama, said Nigeria’s National Rice Development Strategy II recognises the challenges facing women and youth but does not make gender equality a central policy objective. She said women and young people remain major actors across the rice value chain yet continue to face barriers in accessing land, finance, technology and decision-making opportunities.

According to her, the absence of explicit gender objectives within the strategy’s six priority areas weakens implementation and undermines efforts to meet both national rice production targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. Her analysis found that while the strategy promotes mechanisation, digital agriculture, value addition and youth participation, it lacks sex-disaggregated monitoring systems, gender-responsive financing and interventions addressing structural barriers such as discriminatory social norms, disability and gender-based violence.

She said only five of the fifteen GAPo indicators were fully satisfied, reflecting weak institutional mainstreaming of gender issues, and proposed establishing a Gender Responsive Youth Inclusion Alliance to strengthen accountability, define institutional responsibilities, introduce measurable gender and age indicators, and improve monitoring of interventions targeting women and youth.

Discriminatory Land Tenure Systems Still Locking Women Out — Ahmadu

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer and Lead Gender Specialist at Gender Dynamics Consult, Abuja, Joyce Ahmadu, said that although women make up about 70 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural workforce, they remain disproportionately excluded from land ownership because of discriminatory laws and customary land tenure systems.

She said this limited access to land undermines food security, gender equality and inclusive economic growth, while also restricting women’s access to credit, agricultural inputs and key decision-making platforms. Her Policy Implementation Project assessed the implementation of Nigeria’s revised National Gender Policy on Agriculture and Food Systems alongside other frameworks, including the National Gender Policy, the NALDA Act and the Land Use Act, drawing on policy analysis, stakeholder consultations, key informant interviews and focus group discussions conducted in the Federal Capital Territory and Edo State.

Ahmadu said that while these policies acknowledge gender inequality, recognise women’s contributions to agriculture and promote gender-responsive budgeting, legal reforms and advocacy, significant gaps remain in securing women’s ownership of productive assets.

Fish Processing Sub-Sector Lags in Gender Mainstreaming — Osamede

Senior Fisheries Officer at the Edo State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Osarodion Anthonia Osamede, said Nigeria’s commitment to gender equality has yet to translate into meaningful implementation within the fish processing sub-sector. Her assessment of the National Gender Policy examined implementation across ten dimensions, including policy commitment, institutional accountability, capacity building, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, coordination and participation.

While policy commitment and capacity building scored relatively well, she said fisheries sub-sector integration ranked lowest, exposing weak operational structures, inadequate implementation guidelines and limited gender mainstreaming. She said women in fish processing continue to be excluded from decision-making, technology and quality standards, and urged government institutions to develop sector-specific gender implementation guidelines, strengthen accountability, improve budgetary support and build institutional capacity.

Tree Crop Value Chains Still Limiting Women’s Access — Oladokun

Principal Research Officer at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Dr Yetunde Olasimbo Mary Oladokun, said women engaged in Nigeria’s tree crop value chains continue to face limited access to resources that could boost their productivity and livelihoods. She said her project aims to engage policymakers and other stakeholders in identifying the policy gaps hindering women’s participation, noting that many existing policies do not adequately recognise or protect women’s rights.

She urged stakeholders to ensure women’s voices are reflected in policy implementation, arguing that expanding women’s access to productive resources would allow them to make even greater contributions to agricultural development and national food security.

Boosting Credit Access for Smallholder Women Farmers — Onyeaka-Onyilo

Rounding off the presentations, AWARD Policy Fellow Cohort 1, Vera Onyeaka-Onyilo, Knowledge Management and Communication Advisor for the International Fund for Agricultural Development Value Chain Development Programme in Nigeria, presented her Policy Innovation Project, titled “Improving Access to Credit Facilities for Smallholder Women Farmers to Boost Food Systems Transformation in Nigeria: A Case for Policy.” The presentation examined the persistent difficulty smallholder women farmers face in accessing credit and financing, and made the case for stronger policy interventions to close that gap as part of broader efforts to transform Nigeria’s food systems.

Across the presentations, AgroNigeria gathered that  a common thread emerged; Nigeria’s agricultural and food-system policies increasingly name gender equality and youth inclusion as priorities on paper, but consistently fall short on the financing, institutional accountability, measurable targets and monitoring systems required to make those commitments count. Speakers were united in calling for dedicated budget lines, sex-disaggregated data and monitoring frameworks, stronger institutional coordination, and deliberate efforts to give women and young people a seat at the decision-making table, from extension services and post-harvest technology to rice, tree crops, fisheries, land tenure and access to credit.

The AWARD Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy Fellows Cohort 3 side event forms part of continuing efforts to generate evidence that can feed into ongoing reviews of Nigeria’s national agricultural and food-system policies.

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