2012 Agric Budget Very Little

Abuja, January 29, (THEWILL) - The House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture has described the proposed N78.98 billion allocated to Agriculture & Rural Development as too infinitesimal to meet the requirement of the sector.

Consequently, Chairman of the Committee, Tahir Mohammed Monguno who expressed the panel’s reservations at the weekend urged the Federal Government to transfer the 2012 proposal for the security sector for the development of agriculture in the country.

Recall that President Goodluck Jonathan had while presenting the 2012 Federal Budget Proposal before the Joint Session of the National Assembly, proposed N921.91 billion for the security sector.

Speaking during the Committee’s 2012 budget defense meeting with officials of the Agricultural Research Institutes at the National Assembly, Monguno lamented that the agriculture sector in Nigeria had been underfunded despite its importance to the country’s economy.

“As a legislature, we are not happy with the proposal brought by the Executive. Therefore our thinking is that the allocation made to the security sector is too much.

“This is to the detriment of the critical sectors like agriculture which has the potential of creating employment as well as food security in the country.

“We will meet with our Senate counterparts to see how the proposal to the security sector can be moved to the agriculture and spread over the various agencies under the sector as well as other projects that directly touch on the lives of the people we represent,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria has proposed to establish a N20 million National Agricultural science library and documentation centre. The library is to serve as a national reference library for agricultural sciences information and to promote the dissemination and sharing of research information in the country. The project, which will be located in Abuja, is expected to be completed in 2020.
The centre has proposed a total budget of N929.566 million made up of N565. 467 as personnel cost, N164.099 overhead and N200 million as capital cost.

The Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ibadan has a total proposed budget of N1.092 billion made up of N848.873million as personnel, N43.286 million as overhead while 200 million is for capital projects. Out of this, it intends to spend N10 million on fuelling of generators, N4.850 million for the maintenance of plants and generators.

The institute said it plans to “raise N7 million internally through the sales of piggery, cassava and garri, cane rat, goats, sheep, snailery, pure honey and soya milk.”