Editorial- Time to jack up allocations to agriculture

Farmland

That the Federal and States’ Governments spent a paltry 1.8% of the N44trn budgetary allocation translating to N810.4bn on agriculture in three years is, to say the least, very callous. It shows that Nigeria as a country is not serious with food productivity and commercialization of the sector to creating wealth and job for the teeming youths.

It shows the Government’s inconsistence in diversifying the economy and moving away from being a mono-product economy is a charade as the same government has been reluctant to spending on Agriculture even as budgeted monies were not timely released to meet the needs nature of the sector, most time money are released when the need for them may not be effective.

 With the stance of the Government to use non-oil sector of Agriculture to checkmate billions of dollar spent on foods import, we are left in the doubt whether Nigeria can ever meet the African Union (AU) Maputa declaration on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAAP) which demands all members to allocate at least 10% of its total budget to the sector for growth.

 It is worrisome as media report revealed that only 1.8 percent of the total expenditure was voted for agriculture despite the governments’ trumpeted commitment to the sector. Both the Federal and states governments have expended just 2% of N17.5 cumulative spending in 2018 which is slightly higher than that of 2017 of 1.8% with total budget of N13.5. 

With a population of about 180 million which is growing at a rate of 2.5% per annum, and a shrinking farming land there is urgent need to make food productivity to outpace population growth or else there is trouble ahead. It is even shameful that this is coming more than a decade after the 2003 AU-Maputo CAADP that urged African countries to allocate at least 10 percent of their annual budget to achieving at least six percent annual growth in agricultural GDP.

The Daily Trust reported that some of the (other) signatories to the Maputo Declaration (like Nigeria) have since started implementation of the agreement. They include Burkina Faso (18 percent), Niger and Mali (15 percent), Malawi (13.8 percent),  Ethiopia (11.9 percent), Senegal (10.8 percent) and Zambia (11.5 percent). If Nigeria, which prides herself as giant of Africa cannot do more than them, then we are as good as a shame.