The Kwara Budget Committee Group has urged the state government to allocate funds in the budget for silos and other preservation methods to curb annual post-harvest losses estimated at N94.5 billion.
The group, a coalition of Non-Governmental Agricultural Organisations, made the call at a news conference on Tuesday in Ilorin, where they provided an analysis of the 2025 Kwara Agriculture budget.
The spokesperson for the group, Mrs. Modupe Suleiman, Deputy Coordinator of the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), stated, “This is imperative as Kwara experiences annual post-harvest losses of N94.5bn, contributing to the national estimated losses of N3.5 trillion annually.”
She said a report by ActionAid Nigeria shows that farmers in Kwara incur annual losses of N94.5 billion. Despite this alarming figure, the 2025 agriculture budget does not allocate any funds for post-harvest loss reduction support.
“We are concerned about the consequences of this omission, especially in terms of handling excess agricultural produce in 2025.
“This concern is further heightened by the national call for food security following President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security in July.
“Currently, smallholder women farmers in Kwara face limited access, with only 26% having access to processing facilities, 10 % to transportation, 21% to market access, and just 39 % receiving training on reducing post-harvest losses,” Suleiman added.
Concerns over declining agriculture budget allocation
The SWOFON Deputy Coordinator noted that the percentage of the total agriculture budget in relation to the state budget is lower compared to 2024.
“In 2024, the percentage was 1.49 percent, while in 2025, it has dropped to 0.97%, a decrease of 0.52%.
“The 0.97% allocated in 2025 is well below the international benchmark. We, therefore, urge the government to increase the agriculture budget to meet the 10 percent target set by the Maputo/Malabo Declaration and Commitment,” She said.
Suleiman also called for improved budget implementation.
She noted that as of December 31, 2024, only N5,835,250,735 (representing just 37.3%) of the total N15,631,575,080 allocated for agriculture had been released and utilized.
“Given the low budget performance in 2024 and the poor release of funds for projects supporting smallholder farmers, there is a critical need for improved and timely budget releases.
“This should be accompanied by adequate cash backing for budget lines targeting smallholder farmers in the 2025 agriculture budget by the state government,” she said.
Recommendation for transparency and accountability
The group also recommended that, to ensure transparency and accountability, all agriculture-related budget activities should be housed within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Similarly, Mr. Abdurrahman Ayuba, the Coordinator of Scaling Up Public Investment in Agriculture (SUPIA), stated that the purpose of the analysis was to identify gaps and assess how result-oriented the agriculture budget was in achieving food security and supporting farmers.
He expressed disappointment that, for the past six years, Kwara’s agriculture budget has fallen short of the Maputo benchmark, which requires at least 10% of the total state budget to be allocated to the agriculture sector.
