Adejoke Adeleye/ Abeokuta
In a bid to encourage women participation in agriculture and its value-chain, Ogun State Government through the Ministry of Agriculture has expressed readiness to extend Agricultural opportunities to Women Entrepreneurs and Professional Development Network (WEPAN), as well as other women groups in the State.

Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina who disclosed this while playing host to WEPAN and other women groups at the Ministry’s conference room in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, said the ministry would continue to engage all stakeholders in the implementation of its agricultural policies and programmes.

“It is our resolve not to sideline anybody whether Commodity Associations or Gender-based in the implementation of our asgricultural programmes. We will also continue to engage women groups in training and investment promotion, to further network your potential.

“With our partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on most of our Agricultural programmes, we will bring you on board, give out 50 Noilers each to Rural Women in our next distribution and expose you to trainings in all the value-chain opportunities”, Odedina stated.

Speaking earlier, the Global Convener of the Groups and the Iyalode of Yorubaland, Chief (Mrs.) Alaba Lawson expressed readiness of women to embrace agriculture, to produce food in abundance in the country, saying women have a lot to contribute to the economic growth.

“We are keying into the agricultural opportunities in the State. We have taken responsibility to develop female entrepreneurs and professionals, across the country with our network of members spreading to different States in Nigeria.

“The agro-business clusters is paramount in our developmental plans, as we recognise the fact that food is very important to human existence and could be a veritable economic tool, that is why we want the Ogun State Government to assist our clusters fully”, Lawson noted.

Other women groups on the visit include, the Federation of Business Women Entrepreneurs in ECOWAS (FEBWE), Abeokuta NACCIMA Women Group (NAWORG) and Ibafo Women Forum, among others.