Nkechinyere Ewa-Okpara
Small Scale Women Farmer Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) and Ebonyi Budget Committee Group have decried the decline in the Ebonyi State 2025 Agriculture budget from 4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
They noted that the Agriculture budget reduction from 4 to 1.5 per cent of the total State Budget is far from the 10% benchmark of the Maputo Declaration and urged the state government to declare a state of emergency in the agriculture sector to tackle food insecurity.
In a joint media chart organized by Ebonyi State Budget Committee Group (BCG) and SmallScale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) on the Ebonyi State 2025 Agriculture Budget Analysis, Observations and Recommendations with support from Participatory Development Alternatives (PDA) and ActionAid Nigeria, the group said the deficit imposes danger in the effort to address food insufficiency in the state.
Mathias Okinya, the Chairman of the Budget Committee Group and SWOFON Chairperson in Ebonyi Andrena Okwor, in their separate submissions, condemned the reduction in the capital budgetary allocation to Agriculture in the state.
They explained that one of the objectives of agriculture finance is to help smallholder farmers, especially women, to improve their farming activities and move them from a state of dependency to being self-reliant.
They demanded that Public investment in agriculture should be scaled up in areas of extension services and access to credit facilities to enhance food production.
“The 2025 Agriculture budget for Ebonyi State is 1.5% of the total State Budget, which is still a far cry from the 10% benchmark of the Maputo Declaration. This is the third lowest percentage allocation to the agricultural sector in Ebonyi state since 2015 and goes to show the non-commitment of the state to the development of the agriculture sector.
“The Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, adopted by African Heads of State at the African Union’s Second Ordinary Assembly in July 2003, includes a key commitment for countries to allocate at least 10% of their national and state budgets to agriculture. Despite the critical role agriculture plays in the lives and livelihoods of millions of Nigerians, successive governments have fallen short of the 10% budgetary target, leaving the sector underfunded and its potential unrealized.
“The 2024 Agriculture sector budget performance is abysmally poor with only 34.4% (N 2,573,970,139.07 out of N 7,484,510,000) of the capital allocation accessed, leaving 65.6% not assessed. This undermines the fact that agriculture is one of the major sources of income generation in the State. “
“One of the objectives of agriculture finance is to help smallholder farmers, especially women, to improve their farming activities and move them from the state of dependency to being self-reliant.
“The allocation for access to finance increased from N 100,000,000.00 in 2024 to N 200,000,000.00 in 2025. Commendably, this time, based on SWOFON’s advocacy demand, the state government did not just allocate funds as credit facilities as it used to be captured in the previous year. The allocation was specified and captured as “Empowerment of Ebonyi farmers by providing access to grants.’’. We hope that this grant will be released to farmers and ensure that a greater percentage of women farmers across the LGA access the grant to largely support and boost agricultural production, which will, in turn, enhance the food security of the State.
The group recommended that Budget allocation for agriculture should meet the 10% Maputo declaration. This is because agriculture is the major source of income generation in the state and should receive more investment. The government should increase the budget line for agriculture to at least 10%, to meet the Maputo benchmark. This will also help to boost food production in the State and push up the GDP of the State.
Additionally, the government should ensure timely and total fund releases for the implementation of projects, ensuring that 100% of the capital budget is disbursed timely, alongside recurrent expenditure, as this will improve project execution and economic impact.
“Considering the larger number of smallholder women farmers in the agriculture workforce, the state government should ensure that at least 50% of smallholder women farmers access the agricultural grants provided in the 2025 budget”.
Ugochi Joseph program officer for participatory Development Alternative and a member of the Budget Committee group explained that the budget analysis is used as an advocacy tool and urged the government to pay attention to women farmers’ demands to achieve food security and boost the economy of the state as the women also make money through their farm produce.
Nnenna Ibiam among others who spoke during the media briefing expressed shock at the budget allocation for agriculture pointing out that Ebonyi is an agrarian state which demands special attention and care from the government
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They requested urgent action to address the ugly development or else food crises would continue in the state.