admin | June 4, 2026
News Brief
Women farmers in Nigeria are challenging barriers to land ownership through a cooperative model that strengthens access to farmland and incomes. In Plateau State, the Hoomsen Women Farmers Shepwan Cooperative Society, led by Ngwan Ruda, pools savings to lease and buy land, now cultivating nearly 25 acres. Supported by a 2019 grant and community allies, the group grows crops such as peppers and maize. Their success is shifting attitudes toward women’s land rights and is being seen as a model for women’s economic empowerment in agriculture.
Early one morning at the Longvel market, in Plateau State, Nigeria, a small crowd gathers around a motorized tricycle stacked high with sacks of peppers. Two boys hired from the market begin lowering the sacks, with each thud sending dust into the air. The seven women who brought the peppers stand watching nearby.
Ngwan Ruda says the first step is to observe. Her eyes scan the market stalls. She says, “If you sell too early, you risk selling at a loss.”
The sacks of peppers, and the price the women will demand for them, are proof of control. Across rural Nigeria, women cultivate most of the smaller land plots but rarely own them. The Hoomsen Women Farmers Shepwan Cooperative Society, led by Mrs. Ruda, is quietly changing that – and creating a blueprint for expanding women’s land access in the country.
The story of this group starts more than 30 years ago in the village of Shepwan, when Goftar Rifkatu lost her husband. In Shepwan, as in much of Nigeria, land passes through male lineage despite the country’s constitution and the 1978 Land Use Act guaranteeing equal land rights. A widow’s continued access to farmland often depends on her willingness to remain within her late husband’s family. Mrs. Rikatu refused to marry her husband’s brother, and so she lost access to the land that she and her husband had cultivated – land that fed her children and paid their school tuition. She recalls, “My rights to the land died with him.”
Mrs. Rifkatu’s experience is far from unusual. Women account for an estimated 70% to 80% of the labor force on small farms in Nigeria, yet only a fraction hold land titles. Without titles, it’s nearly impossible to obtain credit or expand their plots.
Mrs. Rifkatu did not go to court, as legal representation is expensive and cases can drag on for years. Instead, she formed a group with about 20 other women in a similar situation. They began as laborers, offering to cultivate plots for others and accepting payment in produce or cash. In 2000, they pooled their savings to rent their first plot, planting peppers, corn, and groundnuts.
“We were sisters looking after sisters,” Mrs. Rifkatu says.
Other women are following the same path. Ngizan Chahul is the national president of the Nigerian Association of Women in Agriculture. She says women are increasingly challenging social norms by forming cooperatives, gathering their savings to lease or buy plots, and even going to court to take possession of land. She adds, “The barriers are still here, but the mindset is changing. More women are beginning to see land as leverage, and a lot more of us are taking ownership.”
Many people were not initially supportive of women controlling farmland. Manasseh Komsol, a local farmer, recalls, “At first, people laughed. They said women cannot and should not run a farm on their own. I was hesitant, too.” But after seeing how disciplined they were, he rented them a plot of land.
The women were able to grow their enterprise in 2019, when the group won a grant for 25,000 euros (about $29,000 US). With this money and mediation from male allies such as Mr. Komsol, the women bought nearly 25 acres of land, plus fertilizer and seedlings. When others in the community saw this, they began helping to prepare the land for cultivation and providing additional labor during planting and harvest.
Rebecca Naa’npoe, an agricultural officer with Shendam’s local government, says the women’s cooperative offers a model that she hopes other communities will replicate. She says, “The fact that they have been able to do this for more than a decade, starting from zero with only each other, demonstrates what is possible. It strengthens women’s economic independence.”
The group also advocated for female representation within Shepwan’s traditional leadership, a space long reserved for men. In 2023, for the first time in the community’s history, a woman was appointed Magajiya, the formally recognized leader within the kinship structure. She represents women in council meetings and helps mediate disputes. The appointment has not dismantled entrenched gender hierarchies or cultural restrictions on women owning land, but gave women a seat at the table.
Now numbering more than 50 members, the Hoomsen Women Farmers Shepwan Cooperative Society meets weekly. Conversation topics range from family concerns to farm logistics, but reviewing record books listing contributions, savings, and needs is always part of the agenda.
Photo : Goftar Rifkatu (in green) and Ngwan Ruda (third from left) attend a meeting of the Hoomsen cooperative in Shepwan, Nigeria.
This story was adapted from an article written by Ogar Monday for Christian Science Monitor, titled “Women shut out of landownership in Nigeria cultivate a path forward.” To read the full story, go to: https://www.csmonitor.com/Perspectives/Making-a-difference/2026/0317/nigeria-farming-women-cooperative