Stakeholders in the agricultural sector have urged the Delta State government to implement the Maputo Declaration on agriculture, which recommended that 10 percent of national budget be allocated to agriculture.
This demand formed part of a communiqué issued during a day stakeholders consultative meeting organised by Environmental and Rural Mediation Centre (ENVIRUMEDIC) in collaboration with the Budget Committee Group (BCG) and support from ActionAid Nigeria (AAN).
The stakeholders lamented that budgetary allocation to agriculture in Delta State had been in a “lukewarm progressive ascending of 0.59, 0.63 and 0.90 for 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively.”
They advocated for increased allocation to agriculture in a bid to comply with the Maputo Declaration of 10 percent allocation to agriculture annually.
While noting that majority of farmers in the state were smallholder women farmers, the stakeholders stressed that they should be recognised in the state’s annual budgeting for agriculture.
The stakeholders also recommended a re-introduction of Mobilisation of Rural Women for Sustainable Agriculture (MORWSA) in the budget, for gender sensitivity.
“Allocate funds for Agriculture should be released accordingly and as at when due. Extension services and Women in Agriculture should be a sub-heading under the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) in the budget,” the communiqué reads.
“Mobilisation of Rural Women for Sustainable Agriculture, MORWOSA was not cited in the 2018 budget as a budget line item.
“It is a known fact that if women are empowered the entire nation is equally empowered. Allocation to agriculture has never met the Maputo declaration of 10% from 2013 – 2018.
“Youth Agriculture Enterprise Programme of the Delta State Government did not fall into any budget line item to ascertain how much was committed to it in the 2018 budget,” the communiqué read further.
The stakeholders noted that while it was commendable to note that N200 million was allocated to ADP in 2018 as against N50 million and N70 million for 2016 and 2017 respectively, it was however worrisome that a whooping some of N64.1 billion was meant for miscellaneous in the budget.
“The sum of N1.2 billion was allocated to the Job Creation Officer’s with no clear mention of beneficiaries and location of programmes and project it is meant to achieve. It will give room for ambiguity and inability to effectively monitor implementation,” the communiqué read.
