Civil Society Organisations in Kwara State have called on the state government to make budgetary provision to promote climate-resilient practices in the agriculture sector.

The coalition made the demand through their Budget Committee Group on Wednesday in Ilorin, during a visit to the Kwara House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The coalition’s spokesperson and Executive Director, Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication, Abdulrahman Ayuba, said since 2019 the state’s agriculture budget had not captured the global concern.

He pointed out that its implication could have negative impact on food security, food safety, health, social well-being and environment.

The coalition noted, “The 2024 agriculture budget for Kwara is 1.49 percent of the total state budget which runs below the 10 percent Maputo benchmark. This unfortunately has been the trend in the last five years. But women in agriculture received N11, 379, 900 which represents 0.26 percent of the total budget, while farm inputs received N1,000,000,000 which reflects 22.9 percent of the total budget.

“However, provisions should be made for climate-resilient projects to facilitate the agricultural practice of small-holder farmers like promotion and provision for non-synthetic (organic) fertilisers in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13.’’

It added that CSOs and small-holder women-farmer groups should be involved in needs and impact assessments as well as the annual intra-ministerial budget preparation as was initiated recently but stopped.

It stated, “Farmers, especially small-holder women-farmers, should be consulted in the design of inputs distribution model and actual implementation. Distribution of farm inputs should be done timely and directly to the stakeholders at the grassroots, rather than state level, so it can get to the targeted beneficiaries.

”To ensure accountability and effective access to government intervention programmes, all agriculture-related budget programme activities should be resident in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development budget.’’

It further commended the state government for allocating N30 million to youths in agriculture through the integrated youth farm settlement to reduce youth unemployment and build skills and capacity in agriculture.

In his response, the Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Isa Gideon from Edu Constituency, said the committee would liaise with the ministry of agriculture.

He said this would be on how to secure and make organic fertiliser.

Mr Gideon said while the use of chemical fertilizers increases yield, it still depletes the land and makes such unused for a certain period of time.

“This, and other germane issues raised by the CSOs, will be given due consideration and, if need be, included in the supplementary budget of the state,” he said.

BCG is a group of agriculture-inclined and policy-driven CSOs which have, among other activities, been analysing the Kwara agriculture budget for 11 years.

This was being done with support from ActionAid Nigeria.

Some of the CSOs include Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria, CCEPE, Connected Development and Community Agriculture Initiative Programme.

Other CSOs include Worthy Life Education and Health Foundation, Fulfilling Dreams Foundation and Joint National Association of Persons with Disability among others.

(NAN)