Oxfam launches agriculture budget trend analysis’ report
As states all over Nigeria are passing their budgets, now is the time to engage state and the federal governments on budget accountability, especially in a key sector such as agriculture that touches all our lives, Oxfam Nigeria has launched Agricultural budget trends analysis report.
by the communication officer, Maryam Laushi, on Tuesday, in Abuja, said the report shows the gap in public investment that the country must bridge at national and subnational levels if it is to fulfill its vast potential in a key sector.
“The report also shows how the funds that do get spent do not contribute as they should towards increase agricultural productivity or resilience in the face of climate change, and what can be done to address these gaps. In addition to having a federal-level focus, this report also spotlights the trends of subnational investment in states in which Oxfam currently works on livelihoods – Adamawa, Kebbi, Taraba, Bauchi, Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa States – between 2014 and 2018.
“Agriculture is a central part of Nigeria’s economy and source of livelihood for a significant percentage of the population. The agriculture sector in Nigeria accounts for over 40% of internally-generated revenue from Nigeria’s total economic activities – employing a little above 60 percent of the working population. When you account for inflation, however, the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is only about 24.43%. This makes the challenge posed by our low levels of agricultural productivity abundantly clear,” she said.
Oxfam said the federal and state governments in the country do not budget enough for agriculture and often do not spend up to what is allocated for the sector.
According to it, the federal level investment in agriculture especially has not exceeded 5% budgetary allocation over the past four years, a far cry from the 10% committed to under the Africa-wide Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and food security.
“This helps to explain why smallholder farmers throughout the country remain at subsistence level: the sector sees the lowest levels of access to finance in all sectors in the country; the average farmer uses 13kg of fertilizer per hectare, a far cry from the 300kg that we at Oxfam recommend and implement in our livelihood projects; and lack of access to extension services to help them improve their practices and be resilient to climate change.
Culled from blueprint.ng
