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% |
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