…the Malabo agreement stipulates a ten percent budgetary allocation to agriculture in pursuit of a six percent annual agricultural growth by Heads of States and Governments in the African continent
MON, FEB 26 2024-theGBJournal|A university Don and Professor of Agricultural Economics of the Dennis Osadebe University, Anwai, Asaba, Professor Pius Ike has called on the government at all levels in the country to implement the Malabo Agreement of 2014 in order to arrest the worsening food crisis in the country.
Prof. Ike stated this in Asaba last week during the 2nd in the series of Inaugural Lectures of the university, titled, “National Food Crisis: The Nexus of Public Capital Expenditure and Nigeria’s Budgetary Allocation to Agriculture”
According to the agricultural economist, the Malabo agreement stipulates a ten percent budgetary allocation to agriculture in pursuit of a six percent annual agricultural growth by Heads of States and Governments in the African continent.
“This initiative, popularly referred to as the Maputo Declaration at the African Union (AU) Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique, is the main instrument that the leaders put in place to achieve an annual agricultural growth rate of six percent. But sadly, many African governments, including Nigeria, have paid lip service to the declaration which has led us to where we are today,” Prof. Ike said.
He explained that Nigeria’s budgetary allocation to agriculture had been inconsistent over the years which has contributed to slow and inconsistent planning and policy implementation in spite of the pledge by every administration to develop the sector.
He revealed that available data showed that for about four decades, Nigeria’s annual budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector as a percentage of the total annual budget on the average has been 1.52% which falls short of the ten percent recommendation of the Africa Union and far from the 25% of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) template.
“Although Nigeria is a signatory to the Malabo Declaration which recommended that ten percent of the budgetary allocation should be dedicated to the agricultural sector across Africa, the continent’s largest and most populous economy has failed to keep faith with this declaration as its budgetary allocation to the sector has so far not been encouraging as it averages one point five percent in four decades”.
The inaugural lecturer who also pointed out that, “agriculture is one of the sectors of focus for Nigeria’s economic diversification due to its role in ensuring food security, promoting industrialisation, providing jobs and stimulating strong resilience to external vulnerability and fostering shared prosperity.
“Government should develop a framework for sustained incremental budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector. If this policy is adopted, even with one percent annual increase, taking 2024 as a base year, Nigeria would attain the ten percent budgetary allocation to the sector by 2030,” the agricultural economist recommended to the government at all levels.
The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Ben Oghojafor, while commending Prof. Ike for the expose, which provided the road map to solving the food insecurity in the country, called for a deliberate action by the relevant authorities to implement the solutions proffered by the agriculture expert.
Present at the inaugural lecture were the member representing Ndokwa West, and the Chairman, House Committee on Education, in the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Charles Emetulu; members of the Governing Council of the University; university dons; captains of industry; traditional rulers and top government functionaries, among others.
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