The need to Increase the Imo State Agric Budget to 5% of the Total State budget
Many factors affecting the agricultural sector in Imo State should have been gradually addressed over the years through adequate budgetary allocation to the sector to breed new varieties and strains of plants and animals, develop improved production and processing technologies through research, and extend new techniques of production and value chain activities, among others. But the budgets have been insufficient. All these were highlighted during a 1-day advocacy meeting at the State Ministry of Agriculture and Environment under the USAID-Scale Agric Cluster Project.
The Advocacy meeting was led by Community & Youth Development Initiatives (CYDI) with other Cluster members from Persons Living with Disability, National Council of Women Society, Newspoint, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Imo State, and Foundation for Livelihood Advancement. CARA Development Foundation the anchor CSO was also in attendance to provide technical support. At the meeting, it was pointed out by the cluster that Agriculture is the mainstay in every human life because it is responsible for providing food which is the most basic need in human life. In Nigeria, agriculture is one of the foundations of the Nigerian economy, the main livelihood engagement for over 70% of the rural population, and 80% (NGP page 71) of this population are women. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the extant performance of agriculture in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 19.90% year-on-year in nominal terms in Q2 2020, showing an increase of 2.14% points from the same quarter of 2019.
Looking at the preceding quarter’s growth rate of 22.47%, this quarter’s growth rate represented a decline of – 2.57% points. Year after year, the low budgetary allocation has continued to hinder the growth of the sector and the value of the amount released tends to be of the same value due to inflation. In 2022, Imo State Ministry of Agriculture was allocated N4,912,911,917 representing 1.3% of the State budget; Ebonyi State received N3,425,238,354.88 representing 2.4% of their budget while Abia State was allocated N1,544,583,600 representing 1.0%. In 2023, Ebonyi State allocated 2.9%, and Abia 2.6 %, however, the data estimates for the two states in addition to Imo State data are not yet available. In addition, it is the non-oil sector that contributes to the economic growth of the country. Therefore, strong agricultural sectors at any level can lead to high outcomes for health and standard of living.
Therefore, the Cluster is asking for a Strategic Alliance with the State ministry of Agriculture and Environment, to have access to information to guide more advocacy steps that will contribute to the result and for Partnership for budget monitoring.
The Honorable Commissioner, Chief Cosmos Nwabueze Maduba who welcomed the team said all our requests will be granted. He added that the cluster is free to work with any Department and Parastatal in his ministry to ensure that Agric Budget is increased and all the necessary provisions to make sure that Imo State is not lagging behind in addressing issues around Food security are operational.
The Commissioner ended the meeting by thanking the cluster for their Visit to his office and said he is open to welcoming new ideas that will advance the Agricultural sector in Imo State.
