The Small-scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON) has decried the lack of inclusion of smallholder farmers in the policy making process as a major cause of low-level compliance among them.

SWOFON National President, Mrs Mary Afan, made the observation on Tuesday while speaking at a plenary session of the Feed Nigeria Summit (FNS) 2020 organised by AgroNigeria and held at the Ladi Kwali Conference, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja.

The session, tagged the AgroNolly Session, had the theme: AgroNolly: Unleashing the Creative Industry to Achieve Policy Targets.

Feed Nigeria Summit, hosted annually by AgroNigeria, is famed as Nigeria’s foremost agricultural sector convocation aimed at catalyzing transformational progress for the country’s agriculture.

This year’s edition of the Summit, which was themed: Agribusiness: Leading Nigeria’s Recovery, was held on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 1st and 2nd, 2020.

Speaking at the Summit, Afan, who was represented by Mrs Peace Chijioke, stressed that most smallholder farmers do not understand some of the policies and programmes of the government.

She said, “Small-scale farmers are not included in the making of policies that affect them. They do not understand some of these policies and programmes. There is a lack of communication.

“For example, during the time when they were calling for the adoption of Genetically Modified Crops, the smallholder farmers stuck to their local varieties because they do not understand the whole thing.”