By Emeka Nwokocha
Critical stakeholders of the Delta State agriculture sector, Budget Committee Group (BCG), Small-scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON), in collaboration with Environmental and Rural Mediation Centre (ENVIRUMEDIC) and support from ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), have passionately called on Delta State government to allocate more funds to agriculture sector to increase agricultural productivity and address rising food insecurity.
The Agric stakeholders made the call on Friday 9 May while presenting to the public the BCG’s report on the Delta State 2025 Agriculture Budget Analysis at a press briefing session in Warri, headquarters of Warri South local government area of the state.
The BCG’s report on the Delta State 2025 Agriculture Budget Analysis, a yearly exercise, was jointly read by the Executive Director of ENVIRUMEDIC, Chief Monday Ogheneruona Itoghor, Mr. Sunday Okagbare of BCG, Mrs. Victoria Ojarikre of SWOFON, and Mrs. Blessing Onojefegwono of BCG.
The report noted the following observations:
“The state’s 2025 budgetary allocation to Agriculture in terms of percentage is 0.96% of the state’s total budget and less than the allocation to the sector in 2024 which was 1.26% of the budget, a far cry from the 10% benchmark of the Maputo Declaration, indicating the state government’s non-commitment to the development of the agriculture sector.
“There is an increase in the state’s budgetary allocation to capital expenditure and a decrease in the allocation to recurrent expenditure in the agriculture sector in 2025, indicating the government’s desire to spend more on projects that improve the lives of the citizens.
“The per capita investment of the government from the allocation of ₦9,431,723,616 to the agriculture sector amounts to ₦1,673.4, which is grossly inadequate, considering the current economic challenges, and depreciation in the value of the Naira, and further reveals the government’s poor knowledge of the important role the agric sector plays in the overall development of the state and poverty reduction.
“Despite the fact that women and youths form the bulk of farmers’ population, the budgetary allocation for interventions to address their needs witnessed a sharp decrease in 2025.
This is evident in the allocation of ₦50,000,000 to the Mobilization of Rural Women for Sustainable Agriculture (MORWSA), a unit at the Ministry of Agriculture that works with women farmers in the state, indicating 50% decrease when compared to the 2024 allocation to the unit.
Also, N2.362m was allocated to Job Creation Bureau where the Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) is a sub-unit, but the exact allocation to YAGEP was not spelt out in the budget, thus making monitoring of activities in the sector very cumbersome.
“The allocation targeted at providing credit facilities to farmers in 2025 was less than what was allocated to same purpose in 2024.
“The 2024 SWOFON scorecard on Small-holders Women Farmers’ access to agricultural input showed that majority of the farmers don’t have access to agricultural inputs in the state.
“Despite the important role agricultural extension services play in enhancing agricultural productivity and promote food security, funding for its activities has overtime plummeted leading to lack of effective provision of extension services to the increasing numbers of farmers in the state.
“The Delta State government is commended for allocating budget for the purchase of agriculture equipment for agriculture enhancement programme focusing on agricultural land development, farm mechanization and rural infrastructure, including allocating of funds for purchase and maintenance of tractors and other equipment. In addition, the provision of labour saving technologies to farmers, such as drought resistant seeds, simplified mechanical devices for tilling the soil, including planting and harvesting farm produce make farming less tedious and enhance productivity and crop yields.
“The Delta government is commended for its interest in tackling issues of climate impact on food production in previous years, but the decrease in the 2025 budgetary allocation to combat climate change is not encouraging.
“The benefits of agroecology (organic farming) cannot be overemphasized as it has the capacity to restore soil productivity, seed quality, crop vigor, and improved livestock production.
“Postharvest losses in Nigeria is about 50 percent, this putting huge burden on the local farmers, but there was no budget line in the Delta State 2025 budget for postharvest loss reduction support.
“Despite the importance of monitoring and evaluation in generating of data to improve programming, enable effective tracking of agricultural activities, improve productivity, enable effective project implementation and ensure agriculture driven economic growth, there is a decrease in budgetary allocations to monitoring and evaluation in the 2025 budget.
“The 2025 budgetary allocations for research on crop protection & improvement; agricultural survey & development; and survey of agricultural farmlands & properties are obvious indicators that the government is taking agricultural survey serious.
The following are the recommendations:
“Delta State Government should increase allocation to agriculture sector to comply with the Malabo Declaration which recommended the allocation of at least 10% of governments’ annual budget to agriculture, aiming to transform agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods.
“Delta state government should prioritize timely and full release of funds for capital expenditure earmarked for agricultural development, particularly those targeting smallholder farmers and women. And ensure consistent funding for these critical interventions will strengthen support for small-scale farming, enhance food production, and contribute significantly to food and nutrition security across the state.
“Public investment in agriculture should be scaled up in the area of Extension Services provision considering the large number of farmers in the state and the importance of information which enhances agricultural production.
“The Ministry of Agriculture should increase budgetary allocations to MOWRSA and ensure timely release of funds to improve food production and support smallholder women farmers in the state.
“Government should provide storage facilities such as silos, bags, and warehouses for women farmers in all the Local Governments and train women farmers on post-harvest loss reduction techniques.
“Government should provide appropriate labour-saving technologies and “women friendly” farm machinery to small holder women farmers as most of their farms are not accessible to tractors.
“Delta State Government should increase the allocation to climate change mitigation to ensure sustainable food production, and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to train the smallholder women farmers on climate resilience and agroecology, and encourage tree planting and other protective mechanism.
“Resources should be made available to ensure effective and timely dissemination of information on weather forecasts and other climatic conditions to farmers to enable them make informed decisions on farm activities.
“Ministry of Agriculture should initiate a consultative forum to ensure Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Smallholder Women farmers and other key stakeholders are actively involved in the budgetary process to make valuable inputs into the agriculture budget.
“Against the backdrop of worsening impact of climate change on agricultural productivity, priority should be given to irrigation farming to increase food production and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially women and youths.
“Delta State MANR should eliminate encumbrances in accessing credit facilities by smallholder women farmers and strengthen policies to create an enabling environment for smallholder farmers especially women, youths and farmers living with disability to access credit at single digit interest rate.
“Agricultural line items domiciled in Job Creation Office should be spelt out for ease of monitoring and Tracking and the budget line item that promotes youth in agriculture should domicile in the Ministry of Agriculture.
“To achieve economic diversification using agriculture as the driver, the State Government should increase budgetary allocation to smallholders women farmers to boost their agricultural activities as they produce over 70% of the food consumed in the state.
“There is need for creation of a budget line for coordination to enable the core ministry perform effectively, its oversight function of overseeing departments and agencies within the ministry.
