Despite Worsening Insecurity, House of Representatives Yet to Create Agriculture Fund

In the House of Representatives revised Legislative Agenda, the legislators identified the “creation of Agriculture Emergency Fund” as one of its short-term interventions in the sector. The house identified logistical disruption in the agriculture value chain, largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the key challenges the sector is facing.  It, therefore, has mapped out a path to address the problem.

It is no doubt that Nigeria’s agriculture sector is faced with a plethora of problems ranging from rising banditry in the North to the growing farmers-herders crisis in the South. Recently, a joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) rated Nigeria as one of the hunger hotspots in the world.

Promise: Create Agriculture Emergency Fund: Support the creation of the ‘Agriculture Emergency Fund’ to focus on ensuring the sustainability of the agricultural value chain, especially during a crisis.

Further, the report placed Nigeria among 19 countries where acute food insecurity will worsen in its February and May 2022 Outlook. Hence, the need for a real and urgent solution in the country’s agriculture sector. Thus, the creation of an Agriculture Emergency Fund through the National Assembly will further support the agriculture ecosystem in the country.

As promised by the legislators, the Agriculture Emergency Fund will focus on ensuring the sustainability of the agricultural value chain. However, this has not been fulfilled as farmers are still faced with insecurity and a lack of institutional support. Further, the country’s budgetary allocation to agriculture over the years has been grossly inadequate.

Currently, a lot of emergency support for the country’s agriculture sector is through international donors and organizations. In Northern Nigeria, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation through its key partners and donors have implemented emergency assistance for farmers. Also, in line with its 2016-2025 strategic framework, the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has continued to expand initiatives that support local farmers. In Nigeria, more than 3,700,000 households have benefitted from the IFAD investment (A total of US$317.6 million in ten projects and programmes).

The deadline for the actualization of this promise has passed with no significant progress on this promise. Therefore, we rate this promise Broken.