2026 Agric Budget: Stakeholders oppose N89b for fertilizer

Stakeholders in the Agricultural sector have expressed contrary positions on the highest  budget funding being allocated to fertilizers at the expense of other  programs towards sustainable food security.

The groups, including ActionAid Nigeria, the Community of Agriculture Non-State Actors (COANSA), Young Farmers in Nigeria (YoFiN), and the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON), punctured the undue priority given to just one input while programs that are very consequential to food security got very poor funding allocations.

They expressed concern on why 94.7 per cent of the proposed NADF budget for 2026 has been allocated to the Renewed Hope Fertiliser Support Programme (RH-FSP), as they proposed N10b as against N89b for fertilizer procurement with the rest amount spread over other programs.

It was said that the proposed budget for NADF stands at about ₦94.65 billion, with approximately ₦94.14 billion earmarked for capital projects, and ₦514.19 million  for recurrent expenditure. 

Out of the capital allocation of N94.65b, about ₦89.09 billion is dedicated to the Renewed Hope Fertiliser Support Programme accounting for over 94 per cent of the fund’s budget.

The stakeholders argued favourably in favour of fertilizer procurement but opposed the idea of using the whole N89b on the input alone.

They however recommended that the allocation to the fertiliser programme be significantly reduced to  ₦10 billion, with the remaining funds redirected to other high-impact interventions in the sector.

The identified priority areas that require urgent funding support included expanding access to affordable agricultural credit, increase target support for women and youth farmers, scaling labour-saving technologies, providing a wider range of farm inputs beyond fertilisers, and investing in post-harvest infrastructure such as storage and processing facilities to reduce losses.

The groups also observed the budget declined in agriculture from 4.62 per cent in 2025 to 2.59% in the 2026 proposal.

They attributed the drop partly to reductions in  planned expenditures for key agricultural programmes under national policy frameworks such as the National Food Systems Investment Plan and the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy.

They maintained that strengthening agricultural financing and ensuring balanced investment across the value chain will be critical to boosting food production, supporting farmers, and improving Nigeria’s food security outlook.