Preamble
Participatory Development Alternatives (PDA), Initiative for Social Change in Africa (VOFCA); Loving Hands Initiative (LHI), Ndubuisi Amaelu Amuro Cooperative, Women in Agriculture Oso-Edda Branch, Virtuous Women Cooperative Isu, and Ebonyi State CSOs Budget Working Group, with support from ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), through the Public Financing of Agriculture (PFA) project in Ebonyi State analyzed the 2020 Agriculture budget for Ebonyi State.
As an organization working to eradicate poverty, promoting social justice and gender equality, and a group working on budgets and budgetary process, we have deemed it fit to draw the attention of the State Government to the paltry allocations to agriculture in the State and the poor/lack of participation of smallholder women farmers in the budgetary processes in the State.
COMMENDATIONS
- Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are now committed to collaborating with Non-State Actors which should be sustained for more inclusive and responsive agriculture policy and budget making processes in Ebonyi State
- We also commend the State Government and all stakeholders for their unrelenting efforts towards containing the COVID-19 pandemic in Ebonyi.
KEY OBSERVATIONS
During the analysis of the 2020 agriculture budget of Ebonyi State, and Stakeholders consultative virtual meetings, which held on the 21st of July, 2020, participants made the following observations as core issues to be addressed in the 2021 agriculture budget:
- Smallholder farmers, who are producers of over 70% of the food consumed in Nigeria, are not currently involved in the agriculture budgeting processes as there is no formal strategy for their involvement resulting in untapped potential of the farmers (especially women and youths), and the attendant low productivity.
- The challenges faced by the sector include, non-compliance to the 10% national annual budget for agriculture as provided for, in the Maputo/Malabo Declaration; a lack of timely passage and full release of budgeted funds for agricultural development.
- The gender responsiveness of the agriculture budget is insufficient as there is no specific budget line items for women farmers and youths. This limits the application of funds to issues faced by them, thereby making tracking of such line items very challenging.
- The 2019 Agriculture budget of some sector MDAs contain some allocations that were not released, yet such allocations were re-budgeted in 2020 but reduced; the problem being that the functionality of this sector MDAs are limited due to reduced funding.
- That there is huge investment in procurement of heavy expensive machines that are not always appropriate to the needs of the users and unsuitable for the topography and size of land cultivated by smallholder farmers, especially, women. These technologies are also hard to maintain and usually gets dumped when faults develop, leading to wastage.
- The stakeholders’ consultative meeting should be taken as an integral part of the budgeting process across all the MDAs in the agriculture sector both at State and LGA levels, as it is productive, and allows stakeholders to make inputs in the pre-budget discussions promoting citizens’ ownership within the sector.
- Climate change and its effect on farming has resulted in low harvest due to crop failures and floods across the State.
- That the limitation of information to the public in the whole process of budgeting does not allow for wholesome contribution to the development of the budget.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
- With the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) by Mr. President, there is an urgent need for massive and unprecedented investment in the agriculture sector for domestic consumption, rural infrastructural development and export promotion for Nigeria to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.
- The gains made by the sector MDAs as mentioned in the commendations should be sustained and improved upon in the 2021 agriculture budget, and the budget should be increased to address the inputs gaps experienced by smallholder farmers, especially women.
- For 2021 and subsequent years, agriculture budgeting and other policy-making processes, a strategy for involving and mainstreaming the concerns of smallholder farmers should be developed. For example, leaders of women farmer organizations and other smallholder farmers, vulnerable groups such as farmers living with disabilities, and CSOs should be invited to budget preparatory meetings before the release of Budget Call Circulars.
- There should be political will to allocate at least 10% of annual budgets and actuals of revenues to the agriculture sector to increase the realization of the Maputo and Malabo benchmarks for agricultural investment. Additionally, given the time bound nature of farming activities, agricultural budgets must be released on time and fully to enable farmers plant in due season.
- Women and Youths are key workforces in agriculture; therefore, there is need for specific budget lines for them to ease implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
- There should be a scale up of investment in types of public spending that has been shown by evidence to yield better economic outcomes. This includes support for smallholder farmers especially Women and Youths in Agriculture, Promotion and Development of Value chains, Agricultural Finance/Credit, Agricultural Insurance, Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS), Livelihood (LIFE Programme), Farm Inputs, Extension Services, Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, Agricultural Mechanisation (Appropriate Labour Saving Technologies), Research and Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, as well as Coordination.
- The implementation of Agricultural projects in the budget needs to be monitored by all relevant stakeholders such as Ebonyi State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Ebonyi Ministry of Budget, Planning, Research and Monitoring; Ministry of Finance; and Agriculture Committees in the State Assembly, and reports documented, shared and reviewed to enhance lessons learning and improvement in budget implementation.
- The 2021 and subsequent years agriculture budget should be gender sensitive and responsive by providing line items that address specific challenges that affect women farmers different from men as well as creating budget lines for women farmers and other groups such as youths.
- Ebonyi State Ministry of Agriculture and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should create a budget line to continue the implementation of the consultative meeting annually.
- The Ebonyi State Ministry of Agriculture should work closely with States Bureau of Statistics (SBS) to develop tools and mechanisms for planning and developing Gender Responsive budgeting and disaggregated agricultural data for better sector performance.
NEXT STEPS
- PDA to transmit Communiqué to relevant MDAs and Institutions as well as all participants
- The communiqué is to be accompanied with request for advocacy visits
Endorsed By
List of Organizations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and Institutes that participated in the 2021 Agriculture Budget Stakeholders Consultative Meeting
- Participatory Development Alternatives (PDA)
- Small-scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON)
- Initiative for Social Change in Africa (VOFCA)
- Loving Hands Initiative (LHI)
- Ndubuisi Amaelu Amuro Cooperative,
- Women in Agriculture, Oso-Edda Branch
- Virtuous Women Cooperative, Isu
- Ebonyi State CSOs Budget Working Group
- Advocacy for Accountability and Inclusion in Africa
- Ebonyi State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
- Civil Resource Development and Documentation (CIRDDOC)
- Ebonyi State Agriculture Development Programme (EBADEP)
- Ebonyi Broadcasting Corporation (EBBC)