As Nigeria prepares another budget for 2008, farming sector stakeholders say a probe into the implementation of 2007 budget is imperative, Atser Godwin reports.

President Umaru Yar’Adua last week presented the 2008 budget to the National Assembly, giving priority to agriculture. But operators say ‘a closer look’ into the implementation of the 2007 budget is necessary. “It is important for us to know the level of implementation of the 2007 budget sector-by-sector,” the Executive Director, New Nigeria Foundation, Prof. Femi Ajibola, said in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday during a retreat on Nucleus Estate Initiative in Abuja.

Agriculture, which employs more than 70 per cent of Nigerians, received N38bn under the 2007 budget.

Next year, the government plans to spend N121bn on agriculture and water resources.

Ajibola says it is time concrete programmes were put in place for the betterment of the people.

“A lot has been budgeted on agriculture in the past years. What have we achieved?” he asked.

“Except we begin to budget and attach values to implementation, we won’t achieve anything,” he says.

Oil-rich but poverty-stricken Nigeria is seeking to translate oil wealth for the first time into the development of the agriculture and power sectors.

The government has picked agriculture, security, education and power as key sectors that will receive a larger portion of oil wealth in the 2008 budget.

Ajibola says in spite of the billions of naira that are spent on the power sector for instance, ‘nothing has been achieved.’

“What about the amount spent on the cassava initiative? The glut has remained a reoccurring phenomenon,” he says.

Farmers also say they have not benefited from government spending on agriculture.

“We hear of big sums of money spent on agriculture but when we get to the ministries of agriculture, all we see are new vehicles for officials,” Mr. Ogundipe Ayodele, who heads a group of cocoa farmers in Ondo
State, says.

He says government at all levels must ensure that the impact of the large sums of money spent on agriculture reaches the grass roots.

Yar’Adua, who assumed office on May 29 almost mid-way into the 2007 budget has agreed that the performance of the 2007 budget was poor.

“The budget recorded a ‘mixed’ performance,” Yar’ Adua admitted in his budget presentation to the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Recurrent expenditure under the agric budget competes side by side with capital expenditure.

For instance, in the 2007 budget, recurrent expenditure received N16bn while the balance of N22bn went to capital expenditure.

“We must cut spending on personnel. Attention should be placed more on research and activities that would encourage farming,” the President, Nigeria Veterinary Medical Association, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, said on September 29 in Warri, Delta State.

Although Nigeria has achieved macroeconomic improvement in the agric sector, stakeholders insist that there is the need to improve on the microeconomic aspect.

According to government figures, agriculture recorded a growth rate of seven per cent, while contributing over 40 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product in 2006.

“This has not translated to improved livelihood of rural farmers. We feel the Nucleus Estate Initiative would bring the needed micro-economic benefits to farmers,” the Managing Director, Olam Nigeria Limited, Mr. Prakash Kanth, says.

Kanth, whose firm has more than 2,000 farmers under its outgrowers’ scheme, says private sector involvement under the NEI that ensures farmers get inputs and technologies as and when due is critical to the transformation of rural livelihoods.

Local farmers in Africa’s top crude producer face challenges that limit agricultural production and competitiveness.

Inadequate farm inputs, weak infrastructure and inconsistency in government have remained the most prominent limiting factors.

For instance, fertiliser application in Nigeria is about eight kilogramme per hectare less than 200kg/ ha world average, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Inaccessible roads and poor power supply have contributed significantly to the low quality of agricultural products in the country.

The National Bureau of Statistics estimates that 70 per cent of fruits and vegetables produced in the country are wasted, basically due to poor infrastructure and inadequate preservation technique.

Policy inconsistency has also been a major snag in the development of agriculture, according to Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere, who heads the agriculture arm of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.

“We expect the government to be consistent. Let the private sector drive agriculture,” he says.

In spite of the billions set aside for the agriculture sector, Ijewere says government should put in place policies that will encourage private sector participation.

“Government should not take the money and play an active role in the sector. It will not work,” he says.

He says the NEI - the private sector-led outgrowers’ scheme - is a strategy that will bring positive impact on the lives of the farmers.

While a review of the 2007 budget is important, analysts say in spite of the beautiful enunciations in the 2008 budget, only a strict implementation will bring about the desired benefits