1. The agriculture sector got a proposed allocation of N1.4 billion made up of recurrent and capital expenditures of N737.7 million and N750.4 million respectively.
2. The allocation to the sector is 0.4% of the total proposed State budget estimates of N370.3 billion and N139.0 million less than the budget ceiling of N1.6 billion in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF, 2023-2025).
3. The capital expenditure (N750.4 million) of the sector is only 0.3% of the total proposed State capital expenditure of N242.6 billion.
4. The 2023 proposed capital expenditure of N750.4 million is 66.7% less than the N2.2 billion allocated in the 2022 approved budget.
5. The top five budget line items with a cumulative allocation of N557.5 million make up 74.3% of the total capital expenditure of N750.4 million.
6. Counterpart funding/drawdown with cumulative allocation of N561.9 million make up 74.9% of the total capital expenditure of N750.4 million.
7. There are no specific allocations to women and youth tailored interventions, Agricultural Land Development and Mechanization Services, Conduct Unified Agricultural Extension Service Delivery, Community Seed Production Enhancement Project etc.
8. The biggest challenge of the Sector is not only low budgetary allocation over the years. This also includes the challenge of releases/cash-backing – with the Auditor General’s Report of the State showing that in 2021 only 1.4% of the sector’s total allocation of N1.9 billion was actually released.
9. Similarly, in the 2022 3rd Quarter Budget Performance Report it showed that a 19.3% performance out of the N3.1 billion allocated to the Sector.
10. Disturbingly, within the same period, capital expenditure got a performance of 2.9% out of the N2.3 billion budgeted – Kaduna Agriculture Development Agency (KADA) and Kaduna Livestock Regulatory Authority got zero releases

This is a State with about 1.3 million farming households (KASS, 2017) in the Sector, contributing between 36-38% to the GDP and employs about 42.4% of the workforce as well as at a time when about 69.4% of farmers use grains as against seeds, less than 200 extension agents expected to cater for millions of farmers.

Equally, with the fact that the State has about 84.9% income poverty (2019 baseline in the SDP, 2021-2025) and displacement of many farming communities due to insecurity and climate change – the State government needs to prioritize public investments in agriculture by ensuring increased allocation to strategic priorities in the Sector.

Lets engage, ask the right questions and hold the government accountable

CALPED

Y.I.Goje