The Kwara Budget Committee Group has implored the state government to make budgetary allocation for silos and other preservation methods to reduce annual post-harvest losses to the tune of N94.5billion.
The group, which comprises a coalition of Non Governmental Agricultural Organisations, made the call at a news conference, on Tuesday in Ilorin, to give analysis of the 2025 Kwara Agriculture budget.
The spokesperson of the group, Mrs Modupe Suleiman, Deputy Coordinator, Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), said “this becomes imperative as Kwara suffers from huge annual post-harvest losses of N94.5bn out of the national estimated losses of N3.5 trillion annually.”
She said that a report by ActionAid Nigeria, shows that farmers in Kwara suffer annual losses of N94.5billion, but in spite of this alarming figure, the 2025 agriculture budget does not provide any allocation for post-harvest loss reduction support.
“We are concerned about the consequences of this omission, particularly regarding the handling of excess agricultural produce in 2025.
“This concern is heightened by the national call for food security following President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security in July.
“Currently, access among small holder women farmers in Kwara remains limited as only 26 per cent have access to processing facilities, 10 per cent to transportation, 21 per cent to market access and just 39 per cent have received training on reducing post-harvest losses,” Suleiman said.
The SWOFON deputy coordinator observed that the percentage of the total agriculture budget to the total state budget was low compared with that of 2024.
”The percentage in 2024 was 1.49 per cent while that of 2025 is 0.97per cent, there was a drop of 0.52 per cent.
“The 0.97 per cent budgeted in 2025 is far below the international benchmark, we therefore urge the government to increase its agriculture budget to meet the 10 per cent Maputo/Malabo Declaration and Commitment,” she said.
Suleiman also called for an improved budget implementation.
According to her, it was discovered that as at Dec. 31, 2024, only N5,835,250,735 (representing just 37.3 per cent) out of a total N15,631,575,080 budgetary allocation for agriculture was released and utilised.
”Given the low budget performance in 2024 and poor releases of funds for projects that support smallholder farmers, there is a critical need for improved and timely budget releases.
”This should be along with adequate cash backing for budget lines targeting small holder farmers in the 2025 agriculture budget by the state government,” she said.
The group also among other things recommended that to ensure transparency and accountability, all agricultural -related budget activities should be domiciled in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Similarly, the Coordinator, Scaling Up Public Investment in Agriculture (SUPIA), Mr Abdurrahman Ayuba, said that the essence of the analysis was to look at the gaps and how result oriented the agriculture budget was in achieving food security and support for farmers.
He said that it was unfortunate that for the past six years, the agriculture budget in Kwara fell short of the Maputo bench mark of at least 10 per cent of the total budget for the agriculture sector.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the budget analysis is an Actionaid project under SUPIA consisting of 12 participating organisations.
The organisations include Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), FEMCOM, Meadows Community and Development Outreach (MCDO), Worthy Life Education and Health Foundation (WLEHF) and Connected Development (CODE).
The others are Joint National Association of Persons with Disability (JONAPWD), AGRO-GEO, Olatunji Imran Foundation (OLIF), Gold spring Initiative, Welfare for Children and Teenagers Initiative (WECTIN) and Fulfilling Dreams Foundation (FDF).
NAN
