OWERRI—The Nigeria Association of Agricultural Economists, NAAE, has
advised that the nation may not actualize its paradigm shift to agriculture if
the country’s agricultural budget was not beefed up.
The
National President of NAAE, Professor Peter Okuneye, gave the advice yesterday,
while flagging off the 17th Annual National Conference of the Association at
the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO.
Okuneye
said: “As at today, available data shows that not much has been done to
agriculture, particularly in the area of budgeting and critical needs for rural
and agricultural development.”
Vegetable farmers at work
He
recalled that between 2008 and 2012, federal agricultural capital budget
declined from N7.19 billion to N5.45 billion, and that the actual spending
nosedived from N7 billion to N4.6 billion.
“If
these low budgets continue, there will be continuity of low agricultural
investments and the scenario will not augur well for the country,” Professor
Okuneye said.
He
was not particularly happy that “since the coming of the Buhari/Osinbajo-led
Federal Government, we are yet to see any significant deviation or change from
this trend” of low budgeting.
The
NAAE President advised that “agricultural projects must be properly conceived,
implemented, or the existing ones re-organised and financed, monitored and
efficiently managed.”
Okuneye
assured that participants will be taken round “evidence-based papers,
describing the types of agricultural projects that will take us out of
recession.”
Welcoming
the participants earlier, the Vice Chancellor of FUTO, Professor Francis Eze,
opined that “the present re-awakening to the role of agriculture in economic
growth and prosperity portends some good for the nation, if and only if this is
not paid lip service, but rather pursued with all seriousness by government and
private individuals.”
Eze
also advised that policy documents and road maps to improving the sector be
developed and implemented to the last single detail.
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