By George George Idowu
The women farmers in Bauchi have called for increased budgetary provisions to agriculture to encourage productivity.
The chairperson of the Budget Committee Group (BCG), Tabawa Atiku, stated this in Bauchi recently during a visit to the State House of Assembly committees on appropriation and agriculture.
She said that budgetary allocation should focus more on smallholder women farmers to support their agricultural activities and boost food production.
According to her, the group, under the public financing for agriculture budget committee advocacy, was geared to support women farmers to enable them to increase their productivity.
She stressed the need for adequate funding of extension services and prompt funds to achieve farmer access to support services.
Part of her words: “Also the extension workers department should facilitate access to credit for smallholder women farmers to support their farming activities to boost food production and increased income.
“Government should allocate budget and release funds for extension service delivery and make budgetary allocation for capacity building for existing extension officers on modern agricultural practice,” she added.
Atiku also urged the state government to ensure that targeted beneficiaries were reached to get desired results.
She added that the visit was aimed at enabling the group to present findings of the 2024 agriculture budget analysis and advocated increased budgetary allocation allocated to the sector.
On the part of the chairman, House Committee on appropriation, Habu Umar, he lauded the group for presenting good budget analysis.
He pledged to present the document to the house to address challenges affecting extension services.
Also speaking, Dayyabu Ladan, chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, pledged to work with the state’s commissioner for agriculture to facilitate an increase in budgetary allocation to the sector.