Nigeria budgets N875b for agric in 5 years, opts for food imports
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Abuja budgeted N874.83 billion for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) from 2016 to 2021 and imported N7.81 trillion food – the least value, N656.4 billion in 2016; the highest, N2.74 trillion in 2021.
MARD data shows N874.83 billion as its budget in the five years, and Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show N7.81 trillion was spent on food imports.
Budget breakdown
According to MARD figures, the breakdown of its budget in the five years is as follows:
2016
- Capital expenditure – N46.17 billion
- Recurrent expenditure – N29.63 billion
- Total expenditure – N75.8 billion
2017
- Capital expenditure – N103.79 billion
2018
- Capital expenditure – N118.98 billion
- Recurrent expenditure – N53.81 billion
- Total expenditure – N172.79 billion
2019
- Capital expenditure – N107.21 billion
- Recurrent expenditure – N57.68 billion
- Total expenditure – N164.89 billion
2020
- Capital expenditure – N124.4 billion
- Recurrent expenditure – N58.69 billion
- Total expenditure – N183.1 billion
2021
- Capital expenditure – N110.24 billion
- Recurrent expenditure – N69.22 billion
- Total expenditure – N174.46 billion
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Food imports breakdown
Per reporting by The PUNCH, the breakdown of food imports bill in the five years recorded by the NBS is as follows:
2016
- Total – N656.4 billion
2017
- Total – N886.7 billion
2018
- Q1 – N184.4 billion
- Q2 – N224.5billion
- Q3 – N224.3billion
- Q4 – N218.8 billion
- Total – N851.7 billion
2019
- Q1 – N236.33 billion
- Q2 – N249.95 billion
- Q3 – N239.9 billion
- Q4 – N233.3 billion
- Total – N959.48 billion
2020
- Q1 – N261.4 billion
- Q2 – N415.6 billion
- Q3 – N503.4 billion
- Q4 – N532.4 billion
- Total – N1.713 trillion
2021
- Q1 – N630.2 billion
- Q2 – N652.08 billion
- Q3 – N789.1 billion
- Q4 – N667.16 billion
Low domestic food production
The major imports included durum wheat, crude palm oil, and palm olein.
“Our productivity has gone down now, which means that the quantity available to export has gone down and as such we have to rely on imports to meet local demand.
“This is worrisome to not just farmers but to every genuine stakeholder in the agricultural industry in this country,” said All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) National President Kabir Ibrahim.
