Wednesday, July 28, 2021

How Apple and Nike have branded your brain

A new episode of "Your Brain on Money" illuminates the strange world of consumer behavior and explores how brands can wreak havoc on our ability to make rational decisions.

STEPHEN JOHNSON

27 July, 2021

BIG THINK

Apple logo
Vegefox.com via Adobe Stock

Effective branding can not only change how you feel about a company, it can actually change how your brain is wired.
Our new series "Your Brain on Money," created in partnership with Million Stories, recently explored the surprising ways brands can affect our behavior.
Brands aren't going away. But you can make smarter decisions by slowing down and asking yourself why you're making a particular purchase.

Brands can manipulate our brains in surprisingly profound ways. They can change how we conceptualize ourselves and how we broadcast our identities out to the social world. They can make us feel emotions that have nothing to do with the functions of their products. And they can even sort us into tribes.

To grasp the power of brands, look to Apple. In the 1990s, the company was struggling to compete with Microsoft over the personal computer market. Despite flirting with bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, Apple turned itself around to eventually become the most valuable company in the world.

That early-stage success wasn't due to superior products.

"People talk about technology, but Apple was a marketing company," John Sculley, a former Apple marketing executive, told The Guardian in 1997. "It was the marketing company of the decade."

So, how exactly does branding make people willing to wait hours in line to buy a $1,000 smartphone, or pay exorbitant prices for a pair of sneakers?
Branding and the brain

For more than a century, brands have capitalized on the fact that effective marketing is much more than simply touting the merits of a product. Some ads have nothing to do with the product at all. In 1871, for example, Pearl Tobacco started advertising their cigarettes through branded posters and trading cards that featured exposed women, a trend that continues to this day.

It's crude, sure. But research shows that it's also remarkably effective, even on monkeys. Why? The answer seems to center on how our brains pay special attention to information from the social world.

"In theory, ads that associate sex or status with specific brands or products activate the brain mechanisms that prioritize social information, and turning on this switch may bias us toward the product," wrote neuroscience professor Michael Platt for Scientific American.

Brands can burrow themselves deep into our subconscious. Through ad campaigns, brands can form a web of associations and memories in our brains. When these connections are robust and positive, it can change our behavior, nudging us to make "no-brainer" purchases when we encounter the brand at the store.

Nike storeThamKC

It's a marketing principle that's related to the work of Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and economist who won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. In his book "Thinking Fast and Slow", Kahneman separates thinking into two broad categories, or systems:

System 1 is fast and automatic, requiring little effort or voluntary control.
System 2 is slow and requires subjective deliberation and logic.

Brands that tap into "system 1" are likely to dominate the competition. After all, it's far easier for us as consumers to automatically reach for a familiar brand than it is to analyze all of the available information and make an informed choice. Still, the most successful brands can have an even deeper impact on our psychology, one that causes us to conceptualize them as something like a family member.
A peculiar relationship with brands

Apple has one of the most loyal customer bases in the world, with its brand loyalty hitting an all-time high earlier this year, according to a SellCell survey of more than 5,000 U.S.-based smartphone users.

Qualitatively, how does that loyalty compare to Samsung users? To find out, Platt and his team conducted a study in which functional magnetic resonance imaging scanned the brains of Samsung and Apple users as they viewed positive, negative, and neutral news about each company. The results revealed stark differences between the two groups, as Platt wrote in "The Leader's Brain":

"Apple users showed empathy for their own brand: The reward-related areas of the brain were activated by good news about Apple, and the pain and negative feeling parts of the brain were activated by bad news. They were neutral about any kind of Samsung news. This is exactly what we see when people empathize with other people—particularly their family and friends—but don't feel the joy and pain of people they don't know."

Meanwhile, Samsung users didn't show any significant pain- or pleasure-related brain activity when they saw good or bad news about the company.

"Interestingly, though, the pain areas were activated by good news about Apple, and the reward areas were activated by bad news about the rival company—some serious schadenfreude, or "reverse empathy," Platt wrote.

The results suggest a fundamental difference between the brands: Apple has formed strong emotional and social connections with consumers, Samsung has not.
Brands and the self

Does having a strong connection with a brand justify paying higher prices for their products? Maybe. You could have a strong connection with Apple or Nike and simultaneously think the quality of their products justifies the price.

But beyond product quality lies identity. People have long used objects and clothing to express themselves and signal their affiliation with groups. From prehistoric seashell jewelry to Air Jordans, the things people wear and associate with signal a lot of information about how they conceptualize themselves.

Since the 1950s, researchers have examined the relationship between self-image and brand preferences. This body of research has generally found that consumers tend to prefer brands whose products fit well with their self-image, a concept known as self-image congruity.

By choosing brands that don't disrupt their self-image, consumers are able not only to express themselves personally, but also broadcast a specific version of themselves into the social world. That might sound self-involved. But on the other hand, humans are social creatures who use information from the social world to make decisions, so it's virtually impossible for us not to make inferences about people based on how they present themselves.

Americus Reed II, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Big Think:

"When I make choices about different brands, I'm choosing to create an identity. When I put that shirt on, when I put that shirt on — those jeans, that hat — someone is going to form an impression about what I'm about. So, if I'm choosing Nike over Under Armour, I'm choosing a kind of different way to express affiliation with sport. The Nike thing is about performance. The Under Armour thing is about the underdog. I have to choose which of these different conceptual pathways is most consistent with where I am in my life."

Making smarter decisions

Brands may have some power over us when we're facing a purchasing decision. So, considering brands aren't going away, what can we do to make better choices? The best strategy might be to slow down and try to avoid making "automatic" purchasing decisions that are characteristic of Kahneman's fast "system 1" mode of thinking.

"I think it's important to always pause and think a little bit about, "Okay, why am I buying this product?" Platt said.

As for getting out of the brand game altogether? Good luck.

"I've heard lots of people push back and say, "I'm not into brands,"" Reed II said. "I take a very different view. In some senses, they're not doing anything different than what someone who affiliates with a brand is doing. They have a brand. It's just an anti-brand brand."

Ancient Greek military ship found in legendary, submerged Egyptian city

Long before Alexandria became the center of Egyptian trade, there was Thônis-Heracleion. But then it sank.

ROBBY BERMAN

28 July, 2021

Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antique

Egypt's Thônis-Heracleion was the thriving center of Egyptian trade before Alexandria — and before earthquakes drove it under the sea.

A rich trade and religious center, the city was at its height from the six to the fourth century BCE.

As the city's giant temple collapsed into the Mediterranean, it pinned the newly discovered military vessel underwater.

Before Alexander the Great established Alexandria around 331 BCE, one of Egypt's primary ports on the Mediterranean Sea between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE was a place called Thônis-Heracleion.

Now researchers from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), the same organization that first found the city in 2001, have announced the discovery of a couple of fascinating items from the city's heyday. Pinned beneath fallen temple stones is a surprisingly intact Egyptian military vessel from the second century BCE, and researchers have excavated a large cemetery from the fourth century BCE.

Thônis-Heracleion

Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiques

Thônis-Heracleion was one of the two primary access points to ancient Egypt from the Mediterranean. (The other, Canopus, was discovered in 1999.) For millennia, experts assumed Thônis-Heracleion were two different lost cities, but it's now known that Thônis is simply the city's Egyptian name, while Heracleion is its Greek name.

Thônis-Heracleion had been the stuff of legend before it was located, mentioned only in rare ancient texts and stone inscriptions. Herodotus seems to have been referring to Thônis-Heracleion's temple of Amun as the place where Heracles first arrived in Egypt. He also described a visit there by Helen with her lover Paris just before the outbreak of the Trojan War. In addition, 400 years later, geographer Strabo wrote that Heraclion, containing the temple of Heracles, had been located opposite Canopus across a branch of the Nile. Today we know Thônis-Heracleion's location as Egypt's Abu Qir Bay. The sunken port is about 6.5 kilometers from the coast and lies beneath ten meters of water.

Both Thônis-Heracleion and Canopus were wealthy in their day, and the temple was an important religious center. This all ended when the Egyptian dynasty created by Ptolemy set out to establish Alexandria as Egypt's center. Thônis-Heracleion and Canopus' trade — and thus wealth — was diverted to the new capital.

It was perhaps just as well, given that natural forces eventually destroyed Thônis-Heracleion. Located on the Mediterranean, the ground upon which it was built became saturated and eventually began to destabilize and liquefy. The temple of Amun probably collapsed around 140 BCE. A series of earthquakes sealed the cty's' fate around 800 CE, sending a 100 square-kilometer chunk of the Nile delta on which it was constructed under the waves. The Mediterranean's rising sea level over the next couple thousand years completed the drowning of Thônis-Heracleion

Researchers have recovered a large collection of Thônis-Heracleion's treasures revealing an economically rich culture. Coins, bronze statuettes, and over 700 ancient ship anchors have been pulled from the waters. Divers have also identified over 70 shipwrecks. A giant statue of the Nile god Hapi took two and a half years to bring up.

An ancient vessel and a cemetery

Gold mask found in a submerged Greek cemetery.Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiques

The newly discovered ship was found beneath 16 feet of hard clay, "thanks to cutting-edge prototype sub-bottom profiler electronic equipment," says Ayman Ashmawy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiques.

The military vessel had been moored in Thônis-Heracleion when the temple of Amun collapsed. The temple's enormous blocks fell onto the ship, sinking it. The boat is a rare find — only one other ship of its period has been found. As underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio, one of the scientists who found the city, puts it, "Finds of fast ships from this age are extremely rare."

At 80 feet long, the boat is six times as long as it is wide. Like its dually-named city, it's an amalgam of Greek and Egyptian ship-building techniques. According to expert Ehab Fahmy, head of the Central Department of Underwater Antiquities at IEASM, the boat has some classical construction features such as mortar and tenon joints. On the other hand, it was built to be rowed, and some of its wood was reused lumber, signature traits of Egyptian boat design. Its flat bottom suggests it was built for navigating the shallows of the Nile delta where the river flows into the Mediterranean.

Also found alongside the city's submerged northeastern entrance canal was a large Greek cemetery. The funerary is adorned with opulent remembrances, including a mask made of gold, shown above. A statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiques describes its significance, as reported by Reuters:

"This discovery beautifully illustrates the presence of the Greek merchants who lived in that city. They built their own sanctuaries close to the huge temple of Amun. Those were destroyed simultaneously and their remains are found mixed with those of the Egyptian temple."

Excavation is ongoing, with more of Egypt's ancient history no doubt waiting beneath the waves.

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1807-1882

PRELUDE

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré.

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

READ ON

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Poems | poets.org

'No hope' for five missing after German chemical blast

Issued on: 28/07/2021 -

The explosion sent a cloud of TOXIC black smoke into the air. Roberto Pfeil afp/AFP

Frankfurt (AFP)

Five people still missing a day after a huge explosion at a German chemical park are unlikely to be found alive, the site operator said Wednesday, urging residents not to touch possibly toxic soot from the blast.

Two people were already confirmed dead in the incident on Tuesday, which also injured 31 others.

"We have no hope of finding the missing alive," said Frank Hyldmar, CEO of Chempark operator Currenta. "Our thoughts are with the families," he added.

The cause of the Tuesday morning blast at Chempark's waste incineration site in the western city of Leverkusen remains unknown, he told a press conference.

The explosion, which was heard several kilometres away and rattled the windows of nearby homes, sent a cloud of black smoke into the air.

The blast also triggered a fire in storage tanks for solvents that took firefighters hours to put out.

Police closed several motorways in the area and residents were told to stay indoors and shut their windows over concerns dangerous gases may have been released.

The warning remained in place for most of Tuesday until city authorities said air pollution measurements had shown no abnormalities.

Experts are still probing whether soot particles that came down after the blast may be toxic, with a final report not expected for several days.

Currenta chief operating officer Hans Gennen told residents not to touch any residue they might come across and to contact the authorities so samples can be taken.

Locals have also been advised not to eat fruit or vegetables from their gardens, and playgrounds in Leverkusen's Buerrig and Opladen neighbourhoods are temporarily closed.

"We will do everything we can to get to the bottom of this terrible event," Currenta CEO Hyldmar said.

Four of the missing are Currenta employees, while the fifth works for an external company, he added.

Of the 31 injured, one is in a serious condition.

All those affected worked at the chemical park.

The area where the blast happened, in Leverkusen's Buerrig district, is a short distance away from Chempark's main industrial park that houses numerous chemical companies including Bayer, Lanxess and Evonik Industries.

A report in Der Spiegel magazine said the blast was measured as far as 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.

© 2021 AFP

France fines Monsanto for illegally acquiring data on journalists, activists

Issued on: 28/07/2021 -

The logo of US company Monsanto is seen outside its premises

in the city of Lillo, France, on March 24, 2016. © John Thys, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

France's personal data protection agency on Wednesday fined US firm Monsanto for illegally compiling files of public figures, journalists and activists with the aim of swaying opinion towards support for its controversial pesticides.

The firm, now owned by German chemical giant Bayer, failed to inform the people on the watch lists compiled in the context of a heated public debate about glyphosate, a weed killer, it ruled.

The CNIL agency fined Monsanto 400,000 euros ($473,000) in the case brought by seven plaintiffs.

Compiling lists of contacts was not in itself illegal, the agency said, but only people who could "reasonably expect" to figure on such lists because of their business sector or their public standing should have been included.

Furthermore, data had to be collected legally and targets informed, including of their right to refuse being listed. By keeping the lists secret, Monsanto deprived them of this right, CNIL said.

Monsanto gave a rating of one to five to each of the over 200 people on its French lists corresponding to their estimated influence, credibility and level of support for Monsanto on several topics, especially pesticides and genetically-modified crops.

The case, first reported by French media Le Monde and France 2 television in 2019, quickly spread to other European countries where Monsanto was also keeping lists.

Lawyers hired by Bayer -- which had acquired Monsanto the previous year -- said that they found close to 1,500 politicians, journalists and others "located primarily within the EU" on "stakeholder lists" maintained by Monsanto's public relations agency FleishmanHillard.

In a report published by Bayer, the US-based law firm Sidley Austin added that it had found no evidence of illegal surveillance activity surrounding the watch lists.

'Considerably reduced'

In a statement sent to AFP on Wednesday, Bayer said that the French authority had "considerably reduced" the initial scope of its allegations against the firm.

But CNIL's ruling still differed from Bayer's own view that the lists were legal, it said.

FleishmanHillard compiled the lists of people active in the pesticide debate around the time the European Union was considering the renewal of the license for controversial weedkiller glyphosate in 2016-17.

AFP in 2019 filed a complaint with CNIL because some of its journalists were on Monsanto's list, saying it "considers practices of this kind to be totally unacceptable".

The EU decided in 2017 to renew the chemical's license for a shorter than usual period of five years.

Bayer took over Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018 and was immediately bogged down in controversy over its agrichemical products.

In May, a US judge rejected a $1.25-billion deal proposed by Bayer to settle future cancer suits involving weedkiller Roundup, saying the agreement would be more beneficial to the German firm than to those who fall ill.

Bayer, which is not admitting any wrongdoing, maintains that scientific studies and regulatory approvals show Roundup's main ingredient glyphosate is safe.

(AFP)

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE BEAUTIFUL FOR UNESCO

Welsh slate landscape becomes UNESCO world heritage site

Issued on: 28/07/2021 -

London (AFP)

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO on Wednesday added a Welsh slate mining landscape to its list of world heritage sites, making it the 32nd location in the UK to be awarded the status.

The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales in the county of Gwynedd was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the remotely-held 44th session of the World Heritage Committee.

The designation comes one week after the world heritage body stripped the city of Liverpool's waterfront of the accolade to the dismay of local and national politician'sADVER

"The quarrying and mining of slate has left a unique legacy in Gwynedd which the communities are rightly proud of," said Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.

"This recognition by UNESCO will help preserve that legacy and history in those communities for generations to come and help them with future regeneration."

British heritage minister Caroline Dinenage called the decision "a huge achievement" and hoped it would create economic opportunities in the mostly rural region.

UNESCO's heritage list features more than 1,100 sites, which must meet at least one of its 10 criteria and demonstrate "outstanding universal value" to be included.

Other heritage sites include India's Taj Mahal palace, the Grand Canyon National Park in the United States and Peru's Machu Picchu landscape and ruins.

Gwynedd's slate mining past has left quarries, steam railways, industrial buildings and water systems in a mountainous region that encompasses Snowdonia National Park.

The northwest Wales slate landscape is the fourth Welsh site to receive UNESCO recognition alongside the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape in south Wales, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, plus four 13th-century castles and two town walls in Gwynedd.

Slate quarrying has been carried out in the area for more than 1,800 years, with the material used to roof public buildings, homes and factories.

Northwest Wales became a centre of global slate production in the 19th century, and Wales provided about one-third of the world's roofing slate at the industry's peak.

Welsh slate was used to build landmarks including Westminster Hall in London's parliament building, Copenhagen City Hall in Denmark and Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building.

UNESCO also awarded a double listing to the city of Bath in southwest England, which is now one of 12 European spa towns designated by the UN body.

Last week, Liverpool became only the third place to lose its world heritage status after UNESCO judged that development plans threatened its historic port.

Regional mayor Steve Rotheram said the decision was "a retrograde step" taken by officials "on the other side of the world".

Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, a key international treaty. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, says that recommitting to its spirit and fundamental principles is more urgent today than ever. Céline Schmitt, UNHCR Spokesperson in Paris, talks to FRANCE 24.

TERRORISTS FIGHTING THE YPG

US slaps sanctions on Syria armed group with Turkey links

Issued on: 28/07/2021 -

Washington (AFP)

The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on a Syrian armed group that killed a Kurdish politician amid Turkey's 2019 incursion, vowing to keep pursuing accountability in the war-ravaged country.

The United States also took action against two men accused of funding extremists in Syria, including one based in Turkey, as well as five prison officials from President Bashar al-Assad's regime over torture.

The Treasury Department said it was blocking any assets and banning any US transactions with Ahrar al-Sharqiya, a once obscure armed group that came under the spotlight as Turkey sent forces into northern Syria in October 2019 following talks with then president Donald Trump.

The UN rights office said that fighters from the group pulled a 35-year-old Syrian Kurdish politician, Hevrin Khalaf, out of her car and shot her dead in a possible war crime.

The Treasury Department said the group has killed hundreds more since 2018 in a prison it runs near Aleppo and has integrated former members of the Islamic State extremist group.

"Our designations today should serve as a reminder that the United States will use all its diplomatic tools to promote accountability of persons who have inflicted abuses and suffering against the Syrian people," said Aimee Cutrona, a senior State Department official handling Syria.

"These designations come at a moment in which we are seeing an increase of violence in northwest Syria. The United States continues to call for an immediate nationwide ceasefire and de-escalation of violence in Syria," she told reporters.

The Treasury Department took action against five prison officials and eight prisons as it estimated that 14,000 people have been tortured to death as Assad crushes a decade-old uprising.

It also imposed sanctions on Hasan al-Shaban, an alleged Al-Qaeda fund-raiser based in Turkey, and Farrukh Furkatovitch Fayzimatov, who is accused of funding the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate.

The United States has had complicated relations with NATO ally Turkey, with Trump appearing to support President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he linked Syrian Kurds who led the US-backed fight against the Islamic State group to domestic Kurdish separatists.

President Joe Biden's administration has sharply criticized Turkey on a number of fronts, most recently on Cyprus, but has also welcomed Turkish offers to protect the international airport in Kabul as US forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

NIGERIA
How Abuja women farmers resort to

self-help—
Featured News
By Editorial

DESPITE being close to the seat of power, smallholder women farmers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are starved of implements needed to drive their farming business, writes GRACE OBIKE

Rose Amaje, a fish farmer in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, had a good time farming. Since her husband’s retirement from the civil service, her family had used proceeds from her farming business to take care of their needs, and life could not have been better. They even built more ponds and started breeding catfish eggs for their ponds.

Sales also got better, and business boomed so much so that they sometimes had as much as about 3,000 matured fishes in a pond at a time. That was until recently when water scarcity hit Abuja, ruined everything for them, and she was left with no other option than to start hawking food on the street alongside her teenage daughter.

Scarcity of water hit the FCT in March due to repair works carried out on the trunk line at the lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant 3 and 4 in Ushafa. Its effect was severe. Residents, who could not afford to buy the water they need for domestic use from water peddlers, resorted to fetching unhealthy streams and waterholes.

The water scarcity’s effect was so catastrophic in Gwagwalada Area Council to the point that 20 litres gallon of water that used to sell for between N20 to N30 was sold for as high as N100. Eventually, the devastation hit hard on a few small businesses in the vicinity.

But if smallholder women farmers like Rose in Gwagwalada suffer from a man-made water scarcity problem, others face another kind of water challenge arising from the effects of climate change – inadequate rainfall. This is the biggest problem faced by many of these farmers, some of whom are frustrated out of the farming business.

Justina Ihenewengwa, a yam, cassava and maize farmer in Kwali Area Council, explained that one of her greatest challenges is insufficient rainfall. According to her, the amount of rain in Kwali is low compared to other parts of Abuja.

“Rain does not fall in Kwali as much as it does in some parts of Abuja. Sometimes, the rain starts here in May. Three years ago, it came in May, whereas, last year, it started in April. When it does, it sometimes gets suspended and returns until the ending of July, and that affects our crops as maize plants will turn yellow.”

She said adding to insufficient rainfall is the huge invasion of herdsmen and cattle that usually destroy their crops. Ihenewengwa said one major way that government can alleviate the suffering of farmers in the FCT is to develop realistic policies that will curb the menace of the rampaging herdsmen and their cattle.

Rebecca said she ran to the leader of two Small-scale Women Farmers Organisations of Nigeria (SWOFON) groups, Mrs. Justina Ihenewengwa, in Shadda for help. There and then, they gave her a loan of N150,i000 at a 5% interest rate. And that’s how she was able to pay her sons’ fee and also bought an engine she now uses to blend tomatoes and wet beans for her neighbours at a price.

Ihenewengwa explained that she manages two SWOFON groups in Shadda, under which they contribute from N500, N1000 to as much as N40,000 weekly. It is from this money they give loans to needy women amongst themselves. She said they often give members up to N500,000 at a modest 5% interest rate.

The Federal Government said it is trying to remedy the situation by creating the Nigerian Gender Policy, which will mainstream its policies, plans, programmes and projects; and build institutions to promote the activities of women in the sector by providing female farmers with accessible and affordable technology in all areas of agriculture and access to critical resources like land, capital, credit, farm inputs, technology, water and extension services, preservation and storage, markets, etc.

On the 24th of June, 2020, the Federal Government came up with the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP). It was a 12-month, N2.3 trillion “Transit” plan to provide succour to farmers to achieve the cultivation of between 20,000 and 100,000 hectares’ new farmland in every state. It was also meant to support off-take and agro-processing, with low-interest credit in the agricultural sector and other sectors of the economy, to reduce the added hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Also, in August 2020, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo confirmed, during a webinar organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), that the FG had started its implementation.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and other financial institutions are also offering incentives. But according to SWOFON, all of these incentives do not give enough consideration to women farmers, whom the organization estimates make up 70% of the agricultural labour force.

According to SWOFON’s statistics attributed to the Budget Office of the Federation, in 2019, the capital allocation and releases to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was a total of N107,218,344,102, and of this, only N3,999,647,612 (3.73%) was allocated to activities that have to do with women farmers.

Worse still, this allocation was not only for women farmers but also catered for capital allocations directed at youths. From the breakdown of these activities, of the 65 activities laid out by the government in different states and published by SWOFON, about 53 related to training and capacity building for women and youths, with only about 12 activities being agricultural materials or equipment needed.

Last year, women under SWOFON, took a bold step when they insisted that they were tired of using outdated farming equipment like cutlasses and hoes. They strongly demanded gender-friendly equipment.

In December, the women led by the National President of SWOFON, Mary Afan, said the use of hoes was no longer productive and sustainable.

She added that their action was to retire the hoes to the museum knowing fully well that a museum is a place for artefacts since the need for a mechanised method of farming was imperative for Nigerian women who suffer and sweat on the farm every day to till small portions of land to feed themselves and the nation.

In Abaji, Hannatu Solomon said that farming with a hoe is physically draining.

“I come down with severe back pain. So, I joined the protest because the difficulty I face farming with a hoe is too much. Using hoes is not easy. Life would have been easier for me if I had access to tractors, garri machines and other tools. We have been speaking to the FCT government on these things, but they asked us to fill forms. We did, and even after we did that, we never heard from them till date.”

Ihenewengwa, in agreement with Hannatu, said for her at 62 years of age, farming with a hoe is posing a danger to her health.

In Abaji Area Council, Hannatu Solomon said she pays security men monthly to guard her less than a hectare of land. This is apart from the yearly N150,000 she pays as rent. She recalled a horrible experience of previous years. She said she had planted yam and harvested about 100 tubers, and she hoped to use the proceeds to buy a motorcycle so the stress of walking to the farm or paying commercial drivers to carry her produce can be reduced.

Comfort Omoh’s effort at securing her farm is even more dramatic. For the native of Edo state, she spends nights on her farm in Kuchiguyi, especially on rainy days, when the weather gets too cold for the birds in her poultry to prevent another loss.
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Omoh noted that a few weeks earlier, when the first heavy rains fell in the area, she visited her farm in the morning only to discover that she had lost about 10 out of her 200 birds which were just a few weeks old. She noted that the heavy downpour brought down the trampoline she had used to cover her partially built poultry, drowning some chicks.

On poultry production, Omoh and Abigial Bako from Jiwa Community in the AMAC Area council observed that the price of feeds and day-old chicks is discouraging.

“It is so bad to the extent that I am yet to restock since selling all my birds in December,” Bako said.

To make life easier for poultry farmers in the FCT, Omoh advised the government to set up hatcheries and feed manufacturing plants.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the FCT Agricultural Secretariat, Zakaria Aliyu, explained that the office has sensitised women farmers on the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme coordinated by the CBN in collaboration with the area councils. He said the Minister of State for FCT, Dr. Ramatu Aliyu, and the Federal Government have, over the years, put in place a lot of programmes aimed at empowering women in Agriculture.

He said 50 women farmers were trained on fishery and aquaculture, 1,000 from the six area councils were trained in poultry production, and each was given 40 birds and two bags of feeds. Also, he said the animal and husbandry department has also organised women, livestock farmers into cooperatives, trained them on hygienic practices in milk and dairy products and distributed free of charge pursue storage bags to some women farmers to help address post-harvest losses.

The Direction of Information, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Theodore Ogaziechi, said it was not in the place of the Federal Government to carry out enumeration of smallholder farmers within states. “That is the job of state governments,” he stated.

“The federal government is thinking of procuring heavy-duty equipment to help in tilling, clearing, planting and harvesting. This will be done by making them form clusters; there’ll be those handling the equipment so women can hire and pay a token. The government will also help them during the sales by procuring the yields that will be stored up in silos,” he said.

This report was made possible with support from The ICIR and the International Budget Partnership (IBP)

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