The Bauchi State Budget Committee on Agriculture, an umbrella body of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other critical stakeholders in the agricultural sector, yesterday called the relevant government agencies on the need to ensure timely release of funds allocated to the sector for improved service delivery.
Chairperson of the committee, Mrs Tabawa Atiku made the call at a one day stakeholders consultative meeting on 2023 Agriculture Budget organized by the Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative (FAWOYDI), ActionAid Nigeria in collaboration with State Ministries of Budget and Economic Planning, Agriculture and Rural Development held at BSADP, Bauchi.
Atiku in particular, appealed to the state government, state house of assembly to scale up public investment in agriculture, and ensure timely consideration, passage, and total budget releases as a strategic approach to increase food production, reduce hunger and poverty in order to achieve the Maputo/Malabo Commitments.
She stated that, as approved by the 44th National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD); the three tiers of government should commit 10% of their annual budget to the agricultural sector to meet the 10% Maputo/Malabo Declaration required to support at least 6% growth rate for the sector as postulated in the CAADP framework.
The chairperson suggested that, the 2023 and subsequent years agricultural budget should be gender sensitive and responsive by providing line items for the implementation of the National Gender Policy in Agriculture that address specific challenges affecting women farmers as well as avoid lumping up budget for women farmers and other groups such as youths.
“The agriculture sector requires a separate budget cycle to enable SMARD achieve its mandate. Buffer funds from sources such as Consolidated Oil Revenue, Oil Revenue Surplus, Natural Resource Funds, Climate Resource Funds, and the National Agricultural Development Fund (Establishment) Bill, 2019 being proposed by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development should be considered given the strategic importance of the sector. Additionally, given the time bound nature of farming activities, agricultural budgets must be released on time and fully to enable farmers plant in due season.
“There should be political will to allocate at least 10% of annual budgets and actuals of revenues to the agriculture sector with appropriate budget lines so that Nigeria will be on track in the next Biennial Reporting to the African Union Heads of States and Government in line with the Malabo Declaration and Commitments of 2014. Having launched the new national agricultural policy (National Agricultural Transformation and Innovation Policy-NATIP), the 3rd National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP III) should be developed immediately with stakeholders to guide the implementation of NATIP aligning targets and indicators to the Biennial Review indicators to ensure Nigeria is on track in meeting the Malabo Commitments.
“State governments should allocate more public investments in agriculture to address the strategic areas of investments that would increase the agricultural GDP to at least 6%. These strategic areas of investments include Extension Services, Access to Credit, Women in Agriculture, Youth in Agriculture, Appropriate Labour- Saving Technologies, Inputs, Post-Harvest Losses Reduction Supports (processing facilities, storage facilities, trainings, market access, etc.), Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA)/ Agroecology, Research and Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, as well as Coordination.”
In a key note address, the Programme Manager, Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP), Jafaru Ilelah stressed the need for the stakeholders to support the state government in advancing budget funding for the sector and assured that government through BSADP is committed to assist farmers to develop and enhance their agricultural production for maximum benefit and profit, describing agriculture as reliable venture for wealth and job creation.
