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Group photograph of members of the committee
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Bauchi State Government has been called upon to address the problem of paltry allocations to the Agric sector as well as poor participation of smallholder women farmers in the budgetary process.
The call was made by the Public Financing for Agriculture Committee at the of its meeting on Tuesday.
Executive Director, Women with Disability Integrity Development Initiative (WDIDI), Asama’u Yahaya who spoke on behalf of the Committee during a press briefing on the findings of the Bauchi state 2022 Approved Agricultural Budget Analysis organized by the State PFA Budget Committee and Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative (FAWODYI) in collaboration with smallholder Women Farmers Network and Small Scale Women Farmers Organization of Nigeria(SWOFON) with support from Actionaid Nigeria, said that the commitee deemed it fit to comment on the budgetary allocation to agriculture which is primarily rain-fed.
The Committee stated that it was discovered that the total sum of N5,729,042,787, 23 was allocated to agriculture for the year 2022, out of the total budget sum of N197, 475,607,143, 85.
It said that with the advent of the current economic crisis in the country, the smallholder Women Farmers who are known for the production of over 60 percent food consumed in the state are facing series of hard times caused by the partial fuel scarcity which is cut across the entire nation, a development that has led to high cost of market prices of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, simple labour savings technologies, seedlings, that is becoming unaffordable for farmers, especially women.
“Before the emergence of fuel scarcity, smallholder women farmers were already faced with low and difficult access to credit, essential inputs, improved seeds and seedlings, organic and non-organic fertilizers.The continuous scarcity will further compound the situation as they now fear the possibility of poor access, looking at the period of May to August which is a planting season for all farmers.It is pertinent to say that food crisis will continue looming in the state and country at large”
“Currently, there is food price crisis across the state and country, the poor and vulnerable people are facing hunger and Malnutrition, this includes our smallholder women farmers.The fuel filling stations are hacking the fuel pump price in the states, at the local government and community levels”
“The High-Level panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HPLE) of the UN Commitee on World Food Security (CFS) has recently recommended that all governments must continue to support smallholder farmers and local communities through appropriate stimulus packages to enhance food resilience and improved allocation to agriculture for food security” The Commitee said
To avert the looming food crisis in the state, the commitee recommended that the Bauchi government should honour the Maputo Declaration by allocating not less than 10 percent of it’s state total budget to agriculture in the light of diversifying the economy and wealth creation for the state.
Other recommendations according to the commitee include the ministry of agriculture should ensure that the right beneficiaries are targeted and funds are utilized properly to get results while under the BSADP, a direct budgetary allocation should also be made specifically for women in agriculture to capture women capacity support activities.
It said a specific budget line should be allocated for the implementation of the National Gender Policy in Agriculture by the Ministry, adding that since smallholder women farmers have access to less than 23 percent access to formal credit, the bauchi state Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources should create a yearly strengthening Access to budget lines amongst other recommendations.
