Arinze CHIJIOKE

IN November 2022, officials from the Awka North Local Government Area asked Ajuorah Chidinma, a Person With Disability (PWD), to come for her share of cassava stems, rice, and corn seedlings which, according to her, had come from the Anambra State government.

Chidinma owns a small plot of land in Isu-Aniocha, her community, where she cultivates cassava, corn, and black beans (akidi). A passionate farmer, she has worked on the land since 2019 and rushes to every government distribution she hears about, hoping to get some support for her farm.

Two years earlier, she began teaching at a nursey and primary school, where she earns N36,000 a month. From that, she spends about N16,000 on transport, leaving her with N20,000 as take-home pay. This goes into her farming business, which she once ran with her husband before his death, leaving her to care for their four children alone. To make ends meet, she also processes and sells garri.

So, when Chidinma heard about the 2022 input distribution, she did not hesitate. She spent N4,000 on transport to the local government headquarters in Achalla, joining about 25 PWDs from her community who were asked to sit under a canopy and wait.

“When it was time for distribution, the inputs were handed over to individuals who were called women leaders instead of to us directly,” she recalled. “These women were supposed to share them among farmers from different communities. But, immediately, they loaded the supplies into their vehicles and left without telling us where to meet them.”

That was the last time Chidinma saw the farm inputs. The supposed women leaders were unfamiliar faces, not the recognised leaders in her community.

“I am one of the PWD leaders in Isu-Aniocha and I know my community’s woman leader. She wasn’t there that day, and she was not the one who received the inputs,” she said. “We have names of PWDs in every community,” Chidinma said. “The authorities even have our platform and contacts. So it’s not difficult to call us directly whenever inputs arrive,”.

That year, Chidinma bought cassava seedlings and other inputs on her own while government aid meant for farmers like her disappeared. For her, the 2022 experience was not the first of its kind. It paints a grim picture of what has now become a deeply entrenched culture that routinely sidelines smallholder farmers with disabilities from the distribution of agricultural inputs. Sometimes, they are not even invited when the government shares fertilisers, seedlings, or other support meant for farmers. And on the occasions when they are invited, they still return home empty-handed.

An unequally treated population

Globally, an estimated 1.3 billion people, one in every six, live with a disability, according to the World Health Organisation. About 80 per cent of them live in low- and middle-income countries that depend heavily on agriculture. Over 700 million are women.

In Nigeria, there are approximately 35.5 million persons with disabilities, according to the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD). Although there is no reliable gender breakdown, many are smallholder farmers, the backbone of Nigeria’s food system, responsible for about 90 per cent of total agricultural output.

Nigeria officially committed to the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act when President Muhammadu Buhari signed the bill into law on January 23, 2019. The act guarantees the full integration of persons with disabilities into all sectors of society, including economic activities like agriculture, on an equal basis with others.

Conventions like the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) principles also affirm their rights to food, land, water, and agricultural resources without discrimination.

Anambra State domesticated the Disability Rights Law after it was passed in 2018, prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in any form or circumstance. Yet, despite these commitments, implementation remains largely on paper. In a state with more than 5,000 persons with disabilities – according to the coordinator of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) in Anambra State, Ugochukwu Okeke, who said they have a list of all members – about 1,500 of whom are officially registered, farmers with disabilities continue to face systemic exclusion, with little to no access to fertilisers, seedlings, chemicals and other inputs that could boost their productivity.

Studies have shown that access to such agricultural inputs is crucial for meaningful participation in farming. But for many PWDs like Chidinma, it has become a symbol of broken promises, a reminder that, in Nigeria’s agricultural system, equality is still an aspiration, not a practice.

Treated as beggars

Before Bridget Anichebe’s husband died in 2023, the couple cultivated rice and cassava on two plots of land in Omor, a farming community in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State But after his death, the burden of providing for their seven children fell on her shoulders. With no capital to buy seedlings, chemicals, or fertilisers, she was forced to abandon rice farming.

Between that time and now, Bridget, who suffers from vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP), says she has witnessed several rounds of input distribution exercises in her local government, including those for rice seedlings. Each time, she said, she and other persons with disabilities were deliberately excluded.

“Each time we hear about distributions, we go, but nobody attends to us. We usually would stay until they finish sharing everything, and then they tell us to go back home because we do not need the inputs for anything.”

Bridget alleged that officials at the local government headquarters often display openly discriminatory attitudes, treating persons with disabilities as “beggars” rather than productive farmers.

“They don’t see us as people who can work or contribute,” she said.

Now, Bridget survives by planting cassava and processing it into garri, which she sells in the local market to feed her family and keep her children in school. But that has become increasingly difficult. Without access to herbicides or fertilisers, she is forced to hire labourers to clear weeds, spending between N20,000 and N30,000.

“The high cost of labour affects my income,” she explained. “Many times, I have thought of stopping, but I have no other means to feed my children. Collecting loans has also become impossible because of the high interest rates.”

The stress of doing most of the farm work herself takes a toll on Bridget, who says constant bending and lifting have weakened her legs and waist, forcing her to rely on pain medication from local patent medicine stores just to keep working.

Rising cost of fertiliser, seedlings

Although knock knees are usually not considered a disability, Helen Emeka’s case affects her mobility and ability to live a normal life or pursue normal economic activities. She cultivates Cassava, Maize, and Egusi on two plots of land in Omor but says that PWD farmers are rarely notified when fertilisers, seedlings, and other inputs arrive from the government or when they are shared.

She said that she would have loved to add rice to her crops since she has the land, but she cannot afford the cost. According to her, a bag of rice seedlings sells for as much as N200,000 while fertiliser costs between N45,000 and N50,000.

“Without government support, I am forced to buy everything myself, from cassava stems to maize seedlings, and fertiliser for my farm,” she added. “My mother used to help with weeding, but she’s become weak, so I now also pay for labour.”

Helen said the deplorable condition of roads leading to farmlands in Omor adds to the burden. “Only motorcycles can pass through, and the riders now charge more because of how bad the roads have become,” she said.

In August 2024, the state government launched the Farm to Feed Campaign intended to encourage citizens to venture into farming in order to boost both food production and combat hunger. The program encourages citizens to use every available space for backyard farming to boost food production and food security.

At the launch of the one-year initiative, the governor of the state, Charles Soludo said, “What we have come to launch is the issue of collective citizen’s action in partnership with the government at all levels to eradicate hunger ones and for all. Food supply is critical to address poverty and have a healthy nation”.

The governor claimed that his administration has done a lot to address issues of policies and incentives, including providing access to cheap capital for agriculture, improved seedlings and some subsidised inputs, rural infrastructure to minimise post-harvest losses and improving supply chain to the urban centres which are critical to enable these processes to happen.

He, however did not specifically mention PWDs and persons with disability really believe that the programme is not meant for them. For Emeka and many others living with disabilities, the campaign might as well not exist as those interviewed by this reporter said they were not aware of the programme’s launch or how to be part of it.

Their exclusion from yet another agricultural initiative underscores what disability advocates like Gloria Nwafor, Director of the Care for the Physically Challenged and Destitute Foundation, describe as a systemic failure to implement inclusion policies.

‘It is all scam’ 

Ebere Okanmelu, who is visually impaired, owns a small provision store where she sells beverages and snacks in Nkwelle, a community in Oyi Local Government Area. Just behind her shop lies a farmland where she cultivates cassava, yams, and Cocoyams.

She doesn’t like to talk about government support for farmers, especially the distribution of farm inputs, which she bluntly describes as a scam. Now, each time she mounts a motorcycle, the main means of transportation in Nkwelle, to travel along the rickety road to the Oyi council headquarters, the trip drains her energy.

“I have been invited several times and asked to write my name at the local government to receive cassava stems and fertiliser,” she recalled. “But that’s where it ends. Nothing ever comes to me. The next thing I hear is that the items have already been distributed.”’

With no government support, Ebere relies on proceeds from her provision store to sustain her small farm. Over time, she has given up hope and no longer bothers to show up whenever officials announce the distribution of inputs.

According to Okanmelu Ernest, chairman of the Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB), Anambra State chapter, Ebere’s experience mirrors what PWDs face across different communities in the local government. He said that despite repeated complaints to the state government, nothing has changed.

Political distribution

In 2022, the state government launched a Palm and Coconut revolution as part of a large-scale agricultural initiative aimed at economic empowerment and sustainable wealth creation. The government says it has distributed over 1.1 million improved seedlings of palm and coconut trees to about 130,000 households in the state since the launch.

“This initiative is one of our silver bullets in the fight against poverty. Our target is to distribute 10 million of these economic trees to communities and households in the next six years while providing them with relevant extension services to ensure a high survival rate of the seedlings,” Governor Soludo had said  during the distribution of 700,000 more oil palm seedlings in 2024.

During the occasion, other economic trees that were, according to Governor Soludo, facing the danger of extinction, like African breadfruit (Ukwa seedlings), Bitter Cola (Akilu seedlings), Igbo Kolanut (Oji Igbo seedlings), Pawpaw seedlings, were also distributed. But many PWDs were not aware of the distribution. Those who knew about it said they were denied access in their local communities.

Ogugua Paul is the coordinator of PWDs in Ayamelum LGA, Anambra North zone. He confirmed that the seedling got to Omor, his community in Ayamelum LGA, but was distributed according to party affiliation.

Omor has three wards, including Orenja and Amikwe, Akanator and  Aturia, Ogugua explained. But rather than give the PWDs community their own to distribute, it was handed over to councillors in the wards who went ahead to distribute them without involving them. Ogugua told this reporter that many PWDs have to join party parties just to be able to benefit from anything that comes from the government.

Chidinma Chigbo, a small holder farmer from Obosi in Idemili North LGA, did not know about the distribution till she went to work one day and saw her colleagues carrying coconut seedlings and when she asked, she was told it was from the government.

“Nobody collected for me or reached out to inform me about the distribution even though they knew I needed it for my farm. That was not the first time,”.

Nwafor, who doubles as the Anambra State Coordinator of Network of Women with disabilities (NWD), said that many PWDs did not get the input because it was distributed among councillors, like Paul alleged.  She, however, said that she got the inputs because she was working at Anambra East local government, where it was brought and given to every staff.

Allegations of corruption

Some leaders of PWDs alleged that local government officials sell fertilisers, chemicals, seedlings, and other agricultural inputs meant for smallholder farmers in their communities.

Paul also said that the government officials demand payment on arrival at Ayamelum.

“Sometimes, they send messages asking us to come for the government’s agricultural inputs but when we get there, they tell us to pay a certain amount before we can get anything. I paid N60,000 for organic manure, chemicals, and fertiliser,” he recalled.

Nwafor Shedrach, coordinator of PWDs in Awka North, also alleged that officials in the Social Welfare Department, where the disability unit is domiciled, and those in the Agriculture Department are not accountable. According to him, inputs meant for registered farmers with disabilities rarely reach their intended beneficiaries.

“From time to time, the unit receives inputs meant for PWDs, but we don’t get them,” Nwafor said. “We’ve also heard of trainings for smallholder farmers, but we are never informed or invited.”

The PWDs also say they have been sidelined from federal government agricultural support programmes. In August 2024, the government announced the distribution of agro-inputs worth N2.8 billion to 14,000 farmers in Anambra and Enugu states under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program, Phase One (ATASP-1).

The inputs, which reportedly cost N5 billion but were subsidised at N2.8 billion, included fertilisers, improved seeds, and agrochemicals. The initiative was part of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP), designed to boost food production and ensure food security nationwide. Beneficiaries were also to receive a N100,000 cash grant to prevent them from reselling the inputs.

Before the distribution, a five-member committee was set up by the Anambra State government to oversee the process. However, there was no representation of persons with disabilities, not even among the listed attendees.

Shedrach recalled that he and other farmers with disabilities were invited to the Awka North LG headquarters for data capturing.

“We filled out our names, gender, and National Identification Numbers (NIN), and they told us to go back home,” he said. “The next thing we heard was that the inputs had already been distributed.”

He said that denying PWDs access to farm inputs has become a long-standing culture in the local government. As a cooperative, he explained that they have farmlands in Isu-Aniocha and Amanuke communities that have remained uncultivated due to a lack of access to agricultural support.

“As PWDs, we have not benefited from the current government’s agricultural programmes,” Nwafor lamented. “We cannot survive without agriculture. Many of us are into cassava and rice farming, but we are increasingly being discouraged.”

Treat PWDs as a community, give them inputs directly

Okeke, JONAPWD coordinator, said that at the heart of the challenge facing PWDs in Anambra State is the lack of clear and inclusive policies, especially around the distribution of agricultural inputs and facilities.

“The government does not understand that we have barriers and that we are a community that should be treated differently,” he said. “Agriculture inputs often go to the community where members find it difficult to access them,”.

He explained that while it is deliberate exclusions sometimes, there are also accessibility issues, noting that a person in a wheelchair will not bother to come to a hall where he needs to climb stairs to be able to access inputs.

“The deaf do not have anyone to interpret and let them know when inputs will be distributed,”he said. “Same thing for the blind and people with albinism who would not want to stand in the sun during distribution and expose themselves to sunburn”.

According to him, all of this can be addressed when PWDs are allowed to handle inputs themselves. “You cannot say you are distributing farm inputs to us and we are not involved,” he said. “We want the government to give us what belongs to us directly or at least involve us in the distribution because we have leaders in various locations who can coordinate and make sure that we are reached,”.

Nwafor of NWDs said that handing inputs over to community leaders is not an option because PWDs cannot struggle for these inputs like those who are without disability, and many of them are not recognised by their people.

Nwafor recalled how she was selected under the previous administration to be part of the distribution of Garri and Corn from the state government and to also represent PWDs.  She was on the ground during the flag-off of the distribution and made sure to follow up with the local government chairman.

“When it was sent to communities, I called the community leaders and told them that PWDs should be carried along in the distribution. We had different dates for distribution in each community, and I informed our members and was also on the ground to ensure that they got their share,”. But many people did not know about it in other LGAs because they were not carried along,”.

Ogugua also shared a similar experience, recalling when Ayamelum received Rice, Garri and Corn donations from private individuals. He said he was called to the headquarters as a stakeholder and representative of PWDs and was handed their own share.

“I called our members together and we distributed it; those who could not attend, we had to take it to them,” he said. It was seamless. If we are not carried along, we don’t know what happens to the inputs,”. Now, we hire the machine we use for processing Cassava and pay from our cooperative”.

A weak disability commission

With the passage of the Anambra State Disability Rights Law in 2018 came the formation of the Anambra State Disability Rights Commission, mandated to protect the rights of PWDs in the state and ensure that government policies about their welfare are implemented.

However, Okeke, the PWD chairman in Anambra state, says that the commission has not been as active as it should.

“We have a situation where the chairman of the commission and its members work part-time time and so that makes it difficult for us to table our complaints and have issues addressed, “he said. “We only meet 10 times yearly. Even if not all members will not work full-time, let the chairman and the secretary work always,”.

He noted that they have formed cooperative societies across the local governments to be able to engage the Ministry of Agriculture, having discovered that the state government does not like to deal with individuals but groups.

“We also have a disability community circle made of PWD leaders from different communities that will always work with the president generals whenever inputs come from the government. “For us, this is a plan B, in case it is difficult for the government to consistently deal directly with us,” he said. “The leaders will be responsible for mobilising our members at the community level.”

Budget gap

A review of Anambra State’s agricultural budgets reveals that while there are consistent provisions for items such as fertilisers, pesticides, seedlings and other inputs, actual fund releases remain a major challenge. Funds are either not released or only partially disbursed. Notably, none of the budgets analysed for 2023 to 2025 made specific provisions for PWDs.

In 2023 for instance, the government earmarked N50 million for fertiliser procurement and distribution and another N50 million for procurement of other agricultural inputs. However, by the fourth quarter, no funds had been released.

The 2024 budget included N2 billion for the coconut, palm and other seedlings programme with N1.3billion released by the fourth quarter. Another N50 million was budgeted under the “Procurement of Agricultural Inputs Program (Seedlings, Pesticides, Fertilizers),” yet no funds were released by year’s end.

Similarly, in 2025, the state government earmarked N2 billion for coconut, palm and other seedlings programme, N50 million for fertiliser procurement and distribution and N100 million for procurement of agricultural inputs programme (Seedlings, Pesticides, Fertilisers ETC).

Akomolafe Pius, chairman of the Justice Development and Peace Centre (JDPC), Public Finance for Agriculture Budget Committee (PFA) in Ondo State, said that state governments must ensure that PWDs are involved in participatory planning in matters that concern agriculture.

“There should be budget lines that specifically address their concerns, developed with them and their inputs and not for them,”. “The disability commission in the state must also be active as it serves as a bridge between the government and the PWDs, if there is a policy document that guides their actions, it can be reviewed, the government can achieve this by identifying NGOs working with PWDs and working with them for impact,”.

He noted that PWDs are trainable, hence efforts must also be made to understand their peculiarities and design training programs that meet their needs.

PWDs are involved in the entire process

Contrary to the findings of this investigation, Commissioner for Agriculture in Anambra State, Forster Ihejiofor, while responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, claimed that the Ministry’s implementation follows a bottom-up model, ensuring that local communities, ward committees, and cooperative clusters-particularly those representing vulnerable groups-participate directly in planning, identification, and distribution.

“The Ministry remains firmly committed to inclusive, transparent, and community-driven agricultural transformation where every citizen, regardless of physical ability or social status, has equitable access to opportunities in line with the Solution Agenda and Anambra Vision 2070.

The commissioner further claimed that a total of 1,286 PWDs across the 21 LGAs have benefited from various agricultural input distributions-seedlings, fertilisers, and capacity-building programmes, under the ongoing One Youth, Two Skills initiative and Palm & Coconut Revolution.

“In addition to palm and coconut seedlings, the Ministry has distributed tools through the Community-Based Input Distribution Framework improved cassava stems, rice seeds, fertilisers, agrochemicals, and farm (CBIDF) between 2022 and 2025. Each round of distribution included representation from PWD cooperatives and farmers’ associations,”. “This framework is guided by the APGA motto “Onye aghara nwa nne ya,” which underpins our “leave no one behind approach,”he said.

He said that distribution processes are monitored through a multi-stakeholder Agricultural Input Monitoring Committee (AIMC) comprising ministry officials, community leaders, LG/ward agricultural officers, and civil society representatives to ensure transparency, fairness, and direct reach to vulnerable farmers.

On allegations of corruption and irregularities, he claimed that the ministry operates a zero-tolerance policy on extortion or diversion of government inputs, adding that reports of irregularities are investigated promptly through the ANSEC Special Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Committee (SPCACC) and that verified cases lead to sanctions and corrective actions.

PWDs share blame

In her own response, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ifeyinwa Uzoka, recognised that PWDs face challenges in accessing agricultural inputs. She however put part of the blame on them.

“Part of the challenges is that PWDs in the state do not often inform the Ministry whenever they have events like their annual White Cain Day, which provides an opportunity for them to engage stakeholders about their needs,”she said.

“Speaking further, she said “We recognise that they have peculiar needs and are open to engaging for more impact at the Ministry, but they don’t expect us to know about their challenges if they don’t inform us.  If they are left out during distributions, they should speak out. While we might not be completely right in our approach, they cannot also be absolved of blame too,”. They can do more advocacy, write us letters or pay courtesy visits,”.

She told this reporter that while there are no specific policies designed to deal directly with PWDs, the state government does not deliberately sideline them during the distribution of farm inputs. She explained that the ministry usually makes several announcements and jingles on radio stations like the Anambra State Broadcasting Service about planned distributions even before they begin to ensure that those in rural communities are aware.

“We ask them to go back to their wards and register with different Agric Supervisory Councillors at the ward level, “she said. “At the local government level, we also have heads of the Agric Department. To monitor distribution, we send extension workers into the communities,”.

She recalled that in 2024, during the distribution of Palm and Coconut seedlings, a PWD leader walked up to the ministry and identified himself and was given inputs for himself and other PWDs, adding that she collected the leader’s contact information for involvement in subsequent distributions. Okeke confirmed this, but said that the inputs received were not enough for members.

Uzoka attended the final validation of the Revised National Gender Policy in Agriculture and its Strategic Action Plan (2025–2030), a framework designed to ensure equity, inclusivity, and gender justice across the nation’s agrifood systems in Abuja this October. She said the meeting further exposed her to the need to ensure that no one is left behind.

“We have now included PWDs in the 2026 budget of the ministry, “she said. We will work on developing a template that includes massive sensitisation at the grassroots about the need to begin to recognise that PWDs are people with rights”.

The report is done under The ICIR SPARK project.