Actionaid Nigeria has frowned at the poor release of agric allocation in 2018 budget by the Kogi state government.
The organisation stated that a total of N8.5 billion was allocated to the sector in 2018 but only N363 million accounting for 4 percent of the total budget was released during the period.
Gift Omoniwa, programme manager Actionaid Nigeria disclosed this during the Public Finance of Agriculture (PFA) budget committee, a consortium of various civil society organisations meeting.
The civil society organisation appealed to the state government to ensure the release of a minimum of 80 percent of the 2019 total budgetary allocation to agriculture.
Omoniwa, who is also the executive director, Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in
Development (PIBCID), described agriculture as the only sector with potentials to turn around the fortunes of the state and the nation at large.
“We want full implementation of the budget to this sector. We want the status quo to change. We want at least 80 per cent implementation of the budgetary allocation to the sector. This will boost the economy,” she said.
Mathias Okpanachi, chairman of the PFA, comprising representatives of Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs) and the media in the state, said that the trend of poor releases of budgeted funds to the sector was of serious concern to the committee.
This, according to him, is in view of likely adverse effect of such practice on food security for the state and the nation.
Okpanachi said that the poor releases were in spite of the general acknowledgement by all, on the need for increased spending in the sector, particularly to meet up with the minimum 10 per cent spending benchmark stipulated in the Maputo Declaration.
The chairman said that the visit was aimed at seeking areas of possible collaboration and synergy with the ministry toward improving release of budgetary allocations particularly for line items with direct impact on farmers especially smallholder women farmers.
He said the PFA had highlighted key line items in the budget for prioritisation including procurement of agricultural inputs, Women in Agriculture, Kogi State ADP, Mini milling processing machine for rural farmers, House farming system and Fadama counterpart funding among others.
In his response, Emmanuel Idenyi, the permanent secretary, said though the 4.3 percent release to the sector in 2018 was not good enough, it was an improvement on previous years’ releases.
He maintained that agriculture was the mainstay of the nation’s economy before the advent of oil, adding that the present administration, under Governor Yahaya Bello, was committed to making the sector assume its rightful position again.
“Oil diverted our attention and dragged us off our routes to solid economic development and now we are facing challenges. Agriculture should be the mainstay of our economy,” he said.
Victoria Nnakiaike, Lokoja
