Okwe Obi
The determination of the present administration to reduce poverty and hunger by empowering farmers with good seeds, unadulterated fertilisers and implement good policies seem asymmetrical with the N83 billion budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector in 2020 fiscal year.
Before now, there has been constant budgetary reduction in the sector particularly over the past two years. In 2018, N220 billion was appropriated while in 2019, N138 billion was allocated to the ministry.
A cursory breakdown of the 2020 budget shows that N11 billion is for promotion of natural value chain across 30 different commodities, with N3.97 billion allocated to address veterinary and pest control measures. For rural roads and water sanitation, N8.20 billion was earmarked. The government also allocated about N2.1billion for national grazing reserve development, while N813 million is for mechanisation.
Moreover, N1.48 billion is expected to address livelihood improvement and family entrepreneurs, while N2.8 billion and N1.81 billion are for food and strategic reserves, agribusiness and market development, respectively.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, saw nothing wrong with it when he recently said “there is no hunger in Nigeria.”
But the minister’s statement has since elicited wide condemnation because the reverse is the case.
In his first media briefing, Nanono also said that “when people talk about hunger, I just laugh because they do not know hunger. They need to go to other countries to know what hunger is all about.
“If you say I miss my breakfast and I get lunch and dinner, then, that is alright. Food in this country is fairly cheap compared to other countries. In a place like Kano where I come from, you can fill your belly with N30.”
That claim has since been disproved as a man, who tested the minister’s statement, went to a restaurant in Kano and when he attempted to pay only N30, he was almost beaten up!
Anyway, stakeholders in the agricultural sector had hoped that the recent border closure, which is meant to stop importation of goods would see sufficient budgetary allocation to the sector to boost its production capacity were rather disappointed.
The Executive Director of Feed Africa Advocacy Network (FAAN), Chika Okeke, described the allocation as ridiculous, stressing that it does ….. reflect the possibility of tackling hunger.
“As we know, N83 billion for agriculture in capital expenditure is about 1.5 percentage of the entire budget. The 2020 budget for agriculture is totally ridiculous.
“There is no reason to explain why Nigeria at this time and in these circumstances, is allocating paltry sum to agriculture. For us, we feel that the continued decrease from what the Federal Government has given the budget as against N2,200 billion in 2018, almost a N100 billion capital expenditure for agriculture in 2018, shows a sustained decline.
“The 2018 budget represented about 78 per cent to about 55 per cent in 2019 as far as the Maputo Declaration of 2003. We want the Federal Government to, not just, pay lip service to agricultural development in Nigeria, but to actually take further steps by making adequate investment.
“The country’s population is about 200 million. Expending only 1 per cent of our national budget to stimulate agriculture is not acceptable. This country will never go close to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2 (SDGs2) if we continue to pay lip service to agriculture by giving less.
“Be it in quality seeds, animal feeds formulation, soil management and all of that, N83 billion is not even sufficient for the research and development sector talk more of the entire sector,” he said.
For his part, Nigeria’s Country Representative of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Suffyan Koroma, said Nigerians are getting malnourished by the day.
According to him, “the latest data shows that malnutrition is increasing across all regions and income groups. One in three children is stunted and underweight and the figure for this currently stands at 19.9 per cent, which is higher than the globally accepted numbers.”
Going forward, Koroma suggested that a supplementary budget should be provided for the sector.
“We are going to call on the National Assembly for a supplementary allocation to the sector because the country is currently responding to the border closure. The prices of good stuff are going up. Allocation of about N500 billion is not even enough for the sector because that is less than 10 per cent of what the budget is.
“So, we need to do more as a country. Africa cannot feed itself if Nigeria is not food-sufficient. So for as long as Nigeria continues to sneeze as far as budget is concerned, Africa will catch cold.
“Another area that needs serious attention is mechanisation. With almost a population of 200 million Nigeria has less than 50,000 tractors. It is estimated that we need about N1.5 trillion in investment to be able to bridge the gap between where we are now in terms of the number of tractors to where we ought to be,” he said.
Koroma further said farmers need better incentives to increase and diversify the production of high quality products.
“Governments need to adopt policies, food standards and regulations that prioritise availability and affordability of safe and nutritious food. Food system transformation requires strong political commitment for collective synergy and a holistic design of agriculture and food chains strategies,” he added.
Aside funding, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Abdullahi Adamu, said the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) handled by the Central Bank of Nigeria( CBN) should be taken care of by the Ministry of Agriculture.
He said, “let me make an objective intervention on the administration of the ABP. Our National Agricultural Foundation accepts as laudable the principle behind the scheme but we honestly do not believe that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is properly placed to administer it.
“Part of the reasons that the scheme cannot be said to be completely successful is because it is not being operated by the appropriate government agency. I believe, very strongly, that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which has the primary mandate for the implementation of all national agricultural policies, should take over the anchor borrowers scheme for it to properly cascade to the intended beneficiaries.”