The Nigerian farmers’ union has rejected the federal government’s 2010 budget proposal for the agricultural sector, saying it fell short of international recommendation.
The union under the aegis of Voices for Food Security, represents smallholder farmers and organizations across the country.
Mrs Amina Jibrin, representing the union said, “we reject the allocation of $1 million (N148 million) to the agriculture sector’’.
She said the amount was far short of the target of 10 per cent recommended by the Maputo Declaration of 2003, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
“A large portion of this allocation will go into recurrent expenditure,’’ she further argued.
He noted that when compared with the about 12 per cent last year, the meagre allocation in the 2010 proposal suggested that the government no longer believed that food security was an issue.
“The budget does not significantly address the concerns of smallholder farmers neither does it adequately address the concerns of women farmers’’.
Food security and nutrition is one of the 7-point agenda of the current administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Source African Press Agency
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