By Yemi Olakitan
The National Assembly has requested a supplemental budget from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria due to the loss of farmland and crops caused by the recent flooding throughout the nation.
This occurred at the same time that the Bayelsa State government had issued a warning that the flooding this year would cause a humanitarian crisis.
This was said by Senator Abdullahi Yahaya, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, as he accompanied members of his panel to the ministry’s Abuja headquarters for an oversight function.
He asked the ministry to make sure that the N9 billion that had been released to it up till now was well utilised so that it could make plans for the N17 billion that was shortly to be released.Yahaya said: “You should also make an honest projection on the likely impact of flood, insecurity to food production in the country, and offer advice to the government on how to mitigate it.
“You are expected to come up with a comprehensive programme on how best to tackle flood.
“The National Assembly is committed to supporting the ministry if it decides to present a supplementary budget in this regard.” On his part, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar told the panel that his ministry had successfully trained and deployed 82,547 extension workers from 2019 to date to aid and promote local farming in Nigeria.
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He added that the ministry had also implemented programmes on youth employment in Agriculture, and women in agriculture business development.
Abubakar said the training of the extension officers was designed to reduce the ratio of extension services agents to farmers in line with international best practices for increased production of agricultural commodities in Nigeria.
He said: “The ministry had also engaged in land clearing and development of over 4,000 hectares in collaboration with the state and local governments to reduce rural poverty.
He said the ministry was engaging youth in agriculture for increased production of commodities and to achieve accelerated sustainable development of the economy.
He said over three million direct and indirect jobs had been created through the activities of the ministry in the agricultural sector.
He listed inadequate budgetary provisions as one of the challenges to executing critical projects and programmes that will stimulate national agricultural production.
He said less than two per cent of the national budget was been committed to agriculture as against the 10 per cent agreed by African Heads of state at the Malabo declaration, among other challenges.
