Senate Advocates 10% Budget Allocation To Agriculture

By James Itodo

Senate has urged the executive to ensure allocation of at least 10 per cent of total annual budget revenue to agricultural production.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture Production, Services and Rural
Development Senator Salihu Mustapha stated this during the joint budget defence session of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

Mustapha said the Senate and House Committees on Agriculture Production,
Services and Rural Development were concerned about the challenges facing the agricultural sector.

He however, said despite the challenges, the sector remained the largest contributor to the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)from non-oil sector with over 20 per cent.

He decried that the budget allocation to the sector remained a far cry from
the 10 per cent of the nation’s budget in accordance with the Maputo declaration, to which Nigeria has committed to.

The lawmaker said both chambers of the 10th assembly have demonstrated readiness to work together in order to pass the 2024 Budget
in good time.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari listed the ministry’s achievement in 2023 to include procurement and distribution of 324,718 kilograms of certified maize seeds to farmers clusters in the six geo-political zones of the country.

Kyari said the ministry also distributed 2,300 tomatoe seedlings, pests and diseases management packs to 2,300 poor smallholder tomato farmers in 10 tomato producing states affected by Tuta Absoluta in the 2022 dry season production.

He listed the states to include Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue.

He also listed establishment of Rubber Rural Resource Centres (RRRC) with processing technology with a capacity of 1.85 including installation and training of farmers clusters in Ogun state.

He said the ministry registered over 2,351 fertilizer operators across the country using the National Fertilizer Management e-portal platform which generated direct and indirect employment over the years.

Kyari however, decried inadequate budgetary provisions to execute critical projects and programs that would stimulate national agricultural production.

Edited By Grace Namiji