London Halal Forum: ”We’re supporting over 1.2m rural farmers in Northern Nigeria” – WOFAN
The Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), established in 1993, supports over 1.2 million rural farmers across 10 northern states in Nigeria.
Additionally, over 80 per cent of the members of the nongovernmental organisation are women.
WOFAN Director of Strategies, Innovation and Sustainability, Hajia Maimuna Lawal, stated this on Thursday at the London Halal Forum, during a panel discussion.
Hajia Lawal said the organisation works with rural farmers’ groups, who are merged into functional commodities groups as processors, producers and aggregators with a large team that is working to support them in order to see farming as a business.
According to her, the main goal of WOFAN is to organise the rural farmers to make sure that they become successful entrepreneurs.
‘’One intresting thing about us is that 80 percent of our members are women, because you know women feels most of the marginalisation, and so what we’ve done in order to promote equity is to bring out this women and we also have groups that are physically challenged, we have about 60,000 of them and they are also put together into functional groups wher they can also earn income,’’ she said.
She appreciated the opportunity to participate in the panel discussion with a theme Women, Leadership, and Cultural Diplomacy- The Art of Driving Inclusive Growth, moderated by Mrs. Natavan Mammadova, the Secretary General of Maida Nazir Organisationfor Women Empowerment.
SolaceBase reports that other panellists include Mrs Noorjehan Bilgrami, owner of KOEL, Mrs Rasamina Gurbatova, owner and designer at RESM and Mr Kerim Ture, Founder of Modanisa and SalamBooking.
Maimuna explained that several crops are produced by the organisation members, and those that are ready for export are Sesame, Groundnut, Rossel, Soya bean, Garlic and Ginger.
She noted that WOFAN works with over 1, 560 extension workers who also educate the farmers to produce qualitative crops using innovations and good agricultural practices.
‘’ I want to assure you all that we are ready for partnership in terms of export.’’
Also, another panellist, Mrs Rasamina Gurbatova, owner and designer at RESM, who spoke on the generational value of jewellery and ornament, explained the cultural background of jewellery and what it means to many people.
Gurbatova, the designer at RESM, the first Azerbaijani national jewellery brand, said the aim of her collection is to present and exhibit the beauty and cultural diversity of every region of her country, noting that her work presents a modernist interpretation of ancient Azerbaijani ornamental patterns and symbols.
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