Speech: National Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2023 Agriculture Budget

Opening Remarks delivered by Ene Obi, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria at the National Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2023 Agriculture Budget, 29th – 30th August 2022 at Dees Hotels Apartments and Suites, Lagos State

On behalf of the Board and Country Management Team, ActionAid Nigeria is pleased to be organising this important Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on 2023 Agriculture Budget in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Oxfam Nigeria, ONE Campaign and the Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, the ECOWAS COMMISSION. This meeting is important given the impact allocations and spending in the sector have on the well-being of citizens.

ActionAid Nigeria is implementing the Scaling Up Public Investments in Agriculture (SUPIA) Project to promote and scale up public investments in agriculture both political and budget commitment to drive inclusive, lasting agricultural transformation at the national and state-level. The project also seeks to catalyse increased quantity and improved quality of public investment in agriculture through enhanced citizen participation in evidence-based policy making to increase the productivity and well-being of smallholder farmers. The project is built on the successful advocacy model of the Public Financing for Agriculture (PFA) Project to ensure public investments to the agriculture sector remain a top priority at a time of tremendous economic and political challenges in Nigeria. The project is being implemented at National level and in 8 states namely: Bauchi, Gombe, Ondo, Kwara, Kogi, Delta, Ebonyi and the FCT.

This meeting is one of ActionAid Nigeria’s commitment towards opening the space for citizens participation in the agriculture policy and budget making processes towards mutual accountability in Nigeria. This is in line with our strategic objective of Promoting Peoples’ Power in Democratic and inclusive Governance by enhancing democratic choices for citizens, making local governance work for the people, public finance redistribution and effective gender-responsive public service delivery for the poor. If right investments are made to support smallholder farmers especially women and youths in agriculture, in Extension Services, Access to Credit, Women in Agriculture, Youth in Agriculture, Appropriate Labour-Saving Technologies, Irrigation, Inputs, Post-Harvest Losses Reduction Supports (processing facilities, storage facilities, trainings, market access, etc.), Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, Research and Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, as well as Coordination without administrative/bloated overheads, unclear and wasteful allocations within the agriculture sector, Nigeria’s economy will grow. 

The COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted some of the progress we made and now the Russia-Ukraine crisis have further exposed the vulnerability of our food system because we rely heavily on wheat imports. According to the United Nations Comtrade data, we only produce five per cent of our wheat, and Russia is Nigeria’s second wheat importer. Wheat is used in making staples like bread, semolina, noodles, and pasta[1]. We all know the rate at which bread prices are increasing.

The Cadre Harmonize report released end of March 2022 a month after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out as at when we have not started feeling the impact of the war on food security indicates that twenty-one (21) states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 14.5 million people (9.1%) of the analysed population required urgent assistance in the period (March to May 2022). During the projected period (June to August 2022), the number of vulnerable populations may rise to 19.5 million (12.3%) of the overall population analysed, unless conscious efforts are made to provide strategic resilience-focused interventions and humanitarian assistance in areas where necessary[2]. The 21 states are Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara and the FCT. This food and nutrition insecurity is caused by insurgency, armed banditry and farmers herders clashes and when you add floods that have started and our high post-harvest losses, there is need for our urgent rethink of our practices and approaches towards our food and nutrition security which this National Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2023 Agriculture Budget and the new policy for agriculture which is the National Agricultural Transformation and Innovation Policy (NATIP) provides the opportunities.

This National Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2023 Agriculture Budget is aimed at facilitating conversations amongst key stakeholders connecting the continental framework, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) targets and Government intentions within the National Agricultural Transformation and Innovation Policy (NATIP) in Nigeria and strengthening citizens’ participation towards making 2023 Agriculture budget responsive for food security and wealth creation.

This meeting which is the7th of its kind organised by ActionAid Nigeria in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Oxfam in Nigeria, ONE Campaign, and the Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, the ECOWAS COMMISSION provides stakeholders opportunity especially smallholder women farmers to participate in agriculture policy and budget making processes resulting to changes in priority budget line items that are pro-poor and even in the approach of government’s implementation of programmes and projects. We expect that stakeholders will learn from each other and ensure that the 2023 agriculture budget line items across the main ministry, her agencies and participating state ministries of agriculture and economic planning are targeted towards achieving the aspirations of the Nigerian government for the agriculture sector and deliverables within the National Agricultural Transformation and Innovation Policy (NATIP), the regional ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) and the continental CAADP Results Framework.

On behalf of ActionAid Nigeria, I wish us all a successful meeting.

[1] https://dailytrust.com/russia-ukraine-war-contributing-to-nigerias-food…

[2] https://fscluster.org/nigeria/document/cadre-harmonize-identification-r…