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Poor budgetary allocation to agriculture, major cause of food crisis in Nigeria- University don

Professor Chinwuba Ike

By Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha

A university don, Professor Pius Chinwuba Ike, has attributed the major cause of food crisis in Nigeria to failure of various levels of governments to meet up with 10 percent budgetary allocation to agriculture.

Ike, a professor of Agricultural Economics with Dennis Osadebay University, Anwai, Asaba, Delta State spoke while delivering the Second Inaugural Lecture of the institution held at the university.

Prof. Ike whose lecture dwelt on the topic: “National Food Crisis: The Nexus of Public Capital Expenditure and Nigeria’s Budgetary Allocation To Agriculture”, said there are so many reasons for the current national food crisis but failure of past and present Governments to meet up with 10 percent annual budgetary allocation for agriculture as prescribed by Maputo, Mozambique declaration was the major cause of food scarcity in the country.

He said in virtually all his studies in his academic career,, major findings were that inadequate funding of agriculture by governments and formal financial sector were the major cause of food scarcity in the country and poverty among the citizens.

Prof. Ike then called for immediate increase in public funding of agricultural
sector in the country both at the national and sub-national levels.

The university don lamented that two decades after Maputo, declaration by the African Union leaders, very few countries have achieved the 10 percent target.

He said about 12 African countries have achieved that before and after the declaration, among the five which have consistently achieved the target from 1980 to 2020 before the declaration being Burkina. Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali and Niger, while countries like Republic of Benin, Mozambique, Senegal, and Sierra Leone are the ones that have achieved the target some years after the declaration.

He lamented that the share of agriculture in the total government expenditure for the continent has persistently declined over time from about seven percent per a year on an average in the 80s to less than three percent per a year in the last decade.

He described as ,”alarming” the continuous decline in the share of agriculture in the total government expenditure in Africa.

“In the last decade (2010-2019) for example, agricultural productivity growth rate in Africa has been lowest among the developing regions of the world, with about half of the countries in the continent achieving a negative annual average agricultural productivity growth rate,” said the Professor.

He said low and inconsistent budgetary allocation of agriculture by Nigerian governments over the years has partly contributed to equally slow and inconsistent planning and policy implementation despite promises by every succeeding administration.

Prof Ike said that an average of 1.5 percent of total annual budget fell short of 10 percent recommended by African Union and 25 percent recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organisations (FAO).
The prof then called on the Governments at Federal, State and Local levels to make conscious efforts at improving annual budgetary. allocation to agricultural sector.

He also call on levels of Governments in the country to develop a framework for sustainable and incremental budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector, saying that if this policy is adopted, even with one percent annual increase,. starting with 2024 as a base year, Nigeria would attain the 1,0 percent budgetary allocation to the sector by the year 2030.

The Inaugural Lecture was chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Ben F.A Oghojafor, with the Registrar and other principal officers of the university in attendance. Nsukka Platform, Asaba led by its chairman, Dr. Leonard Abonyi, Consultant, Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Vice- Chairman, Dr. Ifeanyi Attamah, Mr. Asogwa, Assistant Commissioner of Police (rtd), among others were present at the ceremony.

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