Business
Reps Decry Poor Budgetary Allocation To Agric Sector
The House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture in Abuja last Tuesday decried the continued dismal budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector of the economy.
Rep. Mohammed Monguno (ANPP-Borno), the Chairman of the committee, made the observation at a budget defence of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Monguno noted that in spite, the role the sector was playing in the economy, the funding to the sector had continued to be low.
“The Executive Arm of the government is paying lip service in revamping the sector in spite of the role it is playing in the Nigerian economy,’’ he said.
According to him, budgetary allocation to the sector has continued to dwindle over the years.
“Over the years, funding to the sector has been dwindling representing 1.6 per cent in 2011 and 3 per cent in 2012.’’
He said that the allocation of 58 per cent of the total budget of the sector to the main ministry, leaving 42 per cent for its agencies was unacceptable.
The legislator called for the downward review of allocations to the ministry and an upward review of allocations to its agencies to enable them meet their mandates.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, said that the ministry would focus on value chains.
“The ministry will expand the number of value chains from 12 commodities in 2012 to 17 in 2013,’’ he said.
According to him, the move is aimed at accommodating other priority commodities like oil palm, wheat, root crops among others.
Adesina said that out of the N40 billion allocated to capital projects in the 2013 budget, N23 billion had been channelled into agriculture value chains.
He said that the allocation for capital projects showed that the commitment of the ministry was to ensure that agriculture productivity was accelerated.
The minister said that the ministry was aggressively implementing an agricultural transformation agenda to ensure food security.
He stressed that the ministry was developing an initiative in the 2013 to engage the youth in agriculture.
Adesina explained that the initiative would create 360, 000 young commercial farmers, while no fewer than 6,000 youths and 3,000 women would be supported in 2013 to begin the initiative.
It would be recalled that N81.4 billion was allocated to for the ministry and its agencies in the 2013 budget.