The Fresh and Young Brains Development
Initiative (FYBIN) has urged the Federal Government to increase its funding to
the agricultural sector, especially for women and youth farmers to increase
their yields and attain food sufficiency.
Founder of the organisation Mrs, Nkiruka
Nnaemego, made the call during Yfarm National Colloquium on Attracting Public
Financing in Sustainable Agriculture for Youth and Women Small Scale Farmers.
Nnaemego said the Nigerian Government is
bounded by the Maputo agreement and committed to the 2014 Malabo Principles of
ensuring increase in public funding to at least 10 per cent of the national
budget to the agricultural sector.
According to her, the increased funding
will enable the nation effectively implement it’s programmes to reduce hunger
and increase productivity, with focus on food sufficiency.
She said that this commitment had not been
achieved noting that it is affecting the productivity of small scale farmers,
who account for about 70 per cent of the
country’s farming population.
According to her: “This colloquium provides
a unique platform for stakeholders in agriculture to brainstorm on innovative
models and approaches for attracting public financing and government
involvement in agriculture.
“From the Malabo declaration, which African
Heads of State agreed to commit 10 per cent of their countries’ budgets to
agriculture, it is unfortunately that Nigeria is still below three per cent.”
“Agriculture is the way to go now since the
country is looking for other options aside oil. We need to increase finance in
agriculture.
“Although the Federal Government is trying,
but it should try harder,” she said.
She further explained that Yfarm project’s
goal was to promote youth/women-led agribusiness society by reducing poverty,
thereby increasing active youth/women participation in sustainable agriculture
by 2020.
She noted that the Yfarm Project had been
at the forefront of policy advocacy, media engagement, capacity building and
mentoring of rural and vulnerable youth/women in some parts of Africa.
“We celebrate outstanding youths and women,
provide access to markets and business networking through our National and
African Youth Agric Festivals and Concerts.”
Project Coordinator, Food and Agriculture,
Actionaid Nigeria, Mr Azubike Nwokoye, appealed to the Federal Government to
create an enabling environment to attract private investment.
He further urged government at all levels
to do their parts by increasing public financing on agriculture across all
areas with comparative advantages.
His words: “Government needs to increase
the amount put yearly in agriculture by up to 10 per cent. Extension services
needs to be funded to assist farmers on the best practices.
“The issue of post-harvest losses needs to
be addressed urgently.
“Farmers lost more than 50 per cent of
their farm produce because there are not storage facilities or processes in the
country,’’ he said.
National Treasurer of Small Women Farmers
Organization In Nigeria (SWOFON)Mrs Hannatu Soni, said that a lot of farmers
could not access inputs such as seeds and fertilizer timely, adding that this
was affecting their productivity.
“Inputs do not get to farmers early. How
can government in their intervention programme supply inputs to farmers in mid
farming season?
No comments:
Post a Comment