Action Aid decries low agric budget, punctures poor agencies allocation, women, youths

The proposed budget allocation for Agriculture in the year 2023 presently before National Assembly for approval has been analysed by Action Aid as having a low percentage of 1.11% of the total budget of N20.50 trillion, just as Agencies of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), women and youths are poorly budgeted to commensurate their importance in food security activities. Action Aid observed this in its analysis of the year 2023 proposed agricultural budget that was made available to us.

In its analysis, the Action Aid described the allocation of N228, 428, 688,402.00 as 1.11% of total budget of N20, 507,942,180,704.00 which was a short-fall of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) benchmark of ten per cent to the sector, adding that the low per cent as ascribed is coming on the heel of 2014 Malabo declaration by the African Heads of states stipulation of at least 10%  national budget be appropriated to the agricultural sector for commercial economic development and job creations towards food security.

The proposed budget was faulted for allocating a low budget for departments, agencies and Research Institutes under FMARD who are supposed to ensure the implementation of the agricultural programmes while the main ministry that got higher budget allocations are just to ensure friendly environment creation.

The analysis X-rayed the last seven years of agricultural budget as not going beyond 2%  saying that ‘’ out of the 20.5 trillion, the agricultural sector’s allocation is 228.4 billion (1.11%) which rather low in terms of its proportion to the entire budget. In the last 7 years or more, the budget for the agricultural sector has not exceeded 2 percent of the total budget. However, empirical evidence has shown that the greater the resources committed to a sector, the greater the output in terms of social benefit to the society. Given that the agricultural sector is adjudged as the sector with the potential to transform the economy and employ the teeming youths, adequate funding must be prioritized for it in the potential budget. Within the periods under consideration, the budget for agriculture increased from 1.70% in 2017 to 2% in 2018, then fell to 1.5% in 2019, fell further to 1.34% in 2020 with slight increase to 1.37% in 2021, increased 1.78% in 2022 and fell back to 1.11% in the current 2023 proposals. The trend shows a precarious allocation pattern with no commitment to gradually increase the allocations in line with the expected demand from the sector’’

Also in view of the role of women and youths in agriculture, the budget analysis called for a considerable greater allocation for them saying that ‘’ the allocation specific for women-related activities in the FMARD budget is quite small considering the capital budget allocation. The channelling of the greater allocation of the budget to the women and youths in agriculture programme should be considered imperative because they constitute over 70% of Nigerian farmers’’ 

The Action Aid alluded lack of political will on the part of government to the commitment of the sector’s development, saying poor prioritization cum inefficient and corrupt management of budgetary resources.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROPOSED 2023 BUDGET.

 

S/N	Item	Amount (N)/percentage
1	Total budget for 2023	20,507,942,180,704
2	Total capital allocation	5,350,000,000,000
3	Total recurrent allocation	8,270,000,000,000
4	Total Allocation to the Agricultural Sector	228,428,688,402
5	Capital budget for the Agricultural Sector	136,685,694,821
6	Overhead budget for Agricultural sector	4,482,648,985
7	Personnel budget for the Agricultural sector	80,936,552,369
8	Total recurrent budgets for the Agricultural sector	85,419,201,354
9	Percentage of agriculture capital allocation to the total capital expenditure	4.2%
10	Percentage of agriculture recurrent allocation to the total capital expenditure	1.03%
11	Percentage allocation to the Agricultural sector	1.11%
12	Percentage of capital expenditure in the agricultural sector	59.84%
13	Percentage of recurrent expenditure in the agricultural sector	37.39%