Stakeholders urge FG, State, LG to commit 10 percent to Agric Sector

By Eloyi Matthew

Stakeholders have called on the three tiers of government to commit 10 per cent of their annual budget to the agriculture sector to meet the 10 per cent Maputo/Malabo Declaration required to support at least 6 per cent growth rate for the sector as postulated in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework.

The call which was made in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2022 Agriculture Budget, organized by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), and others tasked the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), State ministries, and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to create a budget line to ensure the continued coordination and implementation of the stakeholders consultative meeting on the agriculture budget annually at the federal and state levels.

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The communiqué also stated that there should be political will to allocate at least 10 per cent of annual budgets and actuals of revenues to the sector with appropriate budget lines, “so that Nigeria would be on track in the next Biennial Reporting to the African Union Heads of States and Government in line with the Malabo Declaration and Commitments of 2014.”

The communiqué called on state governments to allocate more public investments in agriculture to address the strategic areas of investments that would increase the agricultural GDP to at least 6 per cent.

The communiqué further explained that the strategic areas of investments include extension services, access to credit, women in agriculture, youth in agriculture, appropriate labour-saving technologies, inputs, post-harvest losses reduction supports (processing facilities, storage facilities, training, and market access) “climate-resilient sustainable agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, research and development, monitoring and evaluation, as well as coordination.”

The communiqué hinted that the 2022 budget for agriculture and rural development should conform with National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) and the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP 2021-2025).

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According to the communiqué, “The allocation made to CAADP in the Agriculture Budget should be increased and released 100% per cent to support Coordination of the Agriculture Sector and knowledge building on the CAADP/Malabo performance indicators.