10% of annual budget committed to agriculture sector in Nigeria

10% of annual budget has been committed to Agriculture Sector in Nigeria by the three tiers of government. The commitment is set to meet the 10% Maputo/Malabo Declaration required to support at least 6% growth rate for the sector as postulated in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework.

The advice which was given in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2022 Agriculture Budget, organised 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.

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%. 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, trainings, and market access) “climate resilient sustainable agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, research and development, monitoring and evaluation, as well as coordination.”

2022 budget for agriculture and rural development

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

“Most Agricultural activities are seasonal and are determined by climatic condition which varied from South to the Northern part of the country. Fund releases should take into account and give priority to seasonal projects. The Federal Government may need to legislate on warehousing funds for Agriculture Sector to mitigate the effect of untimely release of fund.”

It added, “The sector requires a separate budget cycle to enable FMARD achieve its mandate. Buffer funds from sources such as Consolidated Oil Revenue, Oil Revenue Surplus, Natural Resource Funds, Climate Resource Funds and the National Agricultural Development Fund (Establishment) Bill, 2019 being proposed by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development should be considered given the strategic importance of the sector. Additionally, given the time bound nature of farming activities, agricultural budgets must be released on time and fully to enable farmers plant in due season.

“There is need to synergize all the budgetary allocation line items for agriculture across all ministry. The budget allocation for agriculture is scattered across many MDAs from the Presidency down to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources, etc. there is a need to harmonize and put all agricultural budget in a single ministry – FMARD.”