By Najib Sani Bauchi
Women farmers in Bauchi state have called on the state government to allocate at least 10 percent of its budget to agriculture in the 2018 fi scal year in order to revitalize the economy of the state as well as create wealth and jobs to the teeming unemployed citizens. Th e women made this call in a communique issued at the end of a one day budget tracking meeting of women farmers organized by Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative [FAWOYDI] in collaboration with Actionaid Nigeria held in Bauchi. According to the women farmers, the state allocated 4.32 , 3.98, 7.05 and 4.65 percents to the agricultural sector in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively ‘which were not suffi cient considering the signifi cance of food production especially now that the country was faced by food scarcity and infl ation’.
‘’ Bauchi State is an agrarian state with annual budget allocation which has stayed below fi ve percent benchmark for the past three years as against the Maputo and Malabo declarations that Nigerian government signed into, which allows government to allocate a minimum of 10 percent of their annual budget to agriculture. In spite of all the discussions about how important the agriculture is to the economic growth and as an alternative source of revenue for Bauchi state, it’s yet to be accorded the right priority through resource allocation for its development for the past three tears’’.
Th ey lamented. Earlier in her address, the Director Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative Hajiya Maryam Garba appealed to the state’s ministry of agriculture to consider women farmers’ groups and women farmers in rural areas while disbursing agricultural loans. She explained that the objective of the meeting was to engage the state policy makers in the sector to increase the 2018 budget line items to refl ect priorities of the women farmers that would promote sustainable agriculture as well as ensure women farmers’ participation in agriculture budget process in the state.
