By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi
The Bauchi State Public Finance for Agriculture Budget Committee has appealed to the State government to honour the Malabo/Maputo declaration allocating and releasing not less than 10 percent of its State total budget to agriculture in the light of diversifying the economy and wealth creation for the State.
The appeal was made the Chairperson of the Committee,Tabawa Atiku during a press briefing on the findings from the analysis of the state 2025 approved agricultural budget organized the Small Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) in collaboration with the Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative (FAWOYDI) with support from ActionAid Nigeria.
She also urged the government to create a budget line for extension services and ensure total cash releases and expenditure so as to achieve access to farm demonstrations for smallholder women farmers.
The Chairperson said that government’s extension services should also be strengthened recruiting new extension agents, building their capacity, and provide them with incentives and facilities necessary for their effectiveness to meet the one (1) extension worker to 300 farmers’ ratio in the field,adding that the sub-sector should be revived and properly funded on a budget line for growth and improvement of productivity even as she also advocate for retired extension workers to support women farmers in extension on voluntary bases at various LGAs.
Tabawa observed that the Bauchi State 2025 agriculture budget recorded an increase of 0.1%, putting the percentage allocation at 1.6% (N7,635,000,000.00) which shows a slight increase compared to that of 2024 sector is experiencing fluctuation in allocation for the past 9 years; this according to her, has made the attainment of the 10% Malabo declaration un-realizable.
“The allocation of N50, 000,000.00 the Ministry of Agriculture for the development of value chain is encouraging compared to 2024 allocation considering the needs. Nevertheless, major crops should be identified for proper utilization of the resources to ensure farmers progress and improvement to agricultural value chain produce and market base that will boost farmer’s income and reduce poverty especially among women farmers.
“Bauchi state suffers from huge annual post-harvest losses with a share out of the national estimated losses of N3.5 trillion annually. Smallholder women farmers in Bauchi State have access to only (i) 18% access to processing facilities. (ii) 16.60% access to storage facilities. (iii) 13.50% access to off takers/access to markets. (iv) 9.60% access to transportation for agricultural produce. (v) 42.30% access to training.
“We therefore recommend the state government to urgently fill the gap with massive investment in cottage processing and storage facilities. For storage facilities, Smallholder women farmers require no fewer than 2500 drums for the preservation of farm produce across the 20 LGAs of the state (5 groups of 25 members per LGAs) The state government should revive the existing but dormant storage facilities at the various LGAs for farmers to store their produce”
“For youth in agriculture, we recommend the state government to separate the budget line for youth in agriculture to create opportunities for youth employment and other programs that will increase agricultural productivity in the state.The state government should support smallholder farmers especially women with simple-Labor-Saving Technologies/machineries such as Ox-Plough, Rice planter and harvester, power tiller etc. to boost food production in the state.The state government need to increase the budget allocation for input support to farmers and also to make provision for organic fertilizer at subsidize rate for smallholder women farmers to access given its negative impact of chemical fertilizer on the environment and on our health”
“On Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, we commend the state government (Min. of Environment) for embarking on tree planting across the state in 2024. However, there is need for the state government to allocate budget line for climate change mitigation and agroecology to ensure sustainable food production in the state. They should also collaborate with relevant stakeholders to train the smallholder women farmers on climate resilience and sustainable agriculture and agroecology, encourage more tree planting and other protective mechanism across the state”
“Given the increasing impact of climate change on agricultural productivity, prioritizing irrigation farming is crucial for food security and economic stability. We recommend that budget line should be allocated for irrigation farming to increase food production and to support the livelihoods of smallholder farmers especially women and youths in the state”
” There should be cash backing and timely releases of funds the relevant MDAs for the implementation of programmes/projects in the capital expenditure to ensure agricultural growth and productivity in the state.The State House of Assembly (House Committee on Agriculture and Appropriation) needs to enhance its oversight functions and mandate over the management of public funds in the sector for quality of spending to guarantee greater value for money.
“Bauchi State Ministry of Agriculture should organize an annual state level stakeholders consultative meeting on the agriculture budget before a call for budget circulars to ensure the priority needs of smallholder women farmers are captured in each year’s agriculture budget’She concluded