Agric stakeholders are calling on the Federal Government to increase the proposed 2017 budgetary allocation for the sector, stating that the 15.2 percent increase in the allocation is inefficient to address lingering infrastructure challenges facing farmers.
The stakeholders commended the president’s efforts to bring back the sector as the mainstay of the economy, but states that the N92 billion which comprises of both recurrent and capital expenditure for the sector in 2017 cannot, at the barest minimum, address issues relating to mechanisation, rehabilitation of irrigation facilities and dams, extension services, insurance, fertiliser subsidy, research and development, among others.
“The proposed allocation is the biggest so far but it is still too small to address the lingering issues in the sector,” said Anga Sotonye, publicity secretary, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN).
“We need to fund our research institutes properly to develop improved seeds, rehabilitate our irrigation facilities and dams, provides extension service amongst other key issues.
With N92 billion budget allocation for the sector in an inflationary economy, we definitely cannot achieve anything with it for agric,” said Sotonye.
He stated that if the government is serious about diversification through agric, the budgetary allocation must be increased so that the sector can contribute more to the country’s GDP.
At present, the government is faced with reviving a sector challenged by poor storage facilities and processing practices as well as farming often mainly done with hand tools.
Available statistics show that Nigeria is one of the least mechanised farming countries in the world with the country’s tractor density put at 0.27 hp/ hectare which is far below the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommended tractor density of 1.5 hp/ hectare.
Nigeria is 132nd out of the 188 countries worldwide measured by FAO / United Nations in terms of the number of tractors in the country.
lesa Bitrus Yakubu, National president, Tractors Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria(TOOAN) while commending the government’s 15.2percent raise in agric budget, added that the FG needs to adequately provide fertilisers to farmers and provide trainings for them on the best practices.
“The need of mechanisation is very important too and government needs to provide infrastructure by rehabilitating our dams and irrigations,” Yakubu said.
The proposed budget is just one percent of the entire budget for 2017. This shows that the government has not indicated its commitment put agriculture at the forefront of the economy,” said Emmanuel Ijewere, vice president, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG).
“Nigeria signed the Maputo agreement to assigned 10 percent to the entire budget to agriculture but this is not so,” Ijewere said.
Ijewere recommended the development of linkages between farmers and the market, guaranteed minimum price for agricultural Products as well as a robust insurance for farmers.
According to analysts, policy makers must particularly pay more attention to export of value- adding agric products to bring more foreign exchange into the economy at a critical period like now.
Stakeholders stress that though Nigeria should support exporters, the Federal Government must focus attention to those who add value to their products before taking them out of the country’s borders.
“If you do not add value, you will only get peanuts for your exports,” said Obiorah Madu, chairman of the Export Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Josephine Okojie
