The Bauchi State Budget Committee Group (BCG) has raised concerns over the meagre allocation to agriculture in the state’s 2025 budget.
Speaking during a press conference in Bauchi, the committee’s chairperson, Tabawa Atiku, said only 1.6 per cent of the approved N465.9 billion budget was allocated to agriculture. The press conference was held in collaboration with the Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative (FAWOYDI), Smallholder Women Farmers Network (SHOWFAN), Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), and ActionAid Nigeria.
Atiku noted that the N7.64 billion allocated to the sector falls far below the 10 per cent commitment under the 2014 Malabo Declaration, threatening efforts to fight food insecurity, poverty, and malnutrition.
“Smallholder women farmers, who contribute over 60 per cent of the state’s food supply, continue to face significant challenges—limited access to credit, high cost of inputs, lack of storage and processing facilities, and heavy post-harvest losses,” she said.
She also highlighted how natural disasters like flooding, coupled with rising costs of fertilisers and seeds, have worsened conditions for farmers, who often still rely on outdated tools.
Dinah Daniel, Executive Director of FAWOYDI, added that only 18 per cent of women farmers in the state have access to processing facilities. She called on the government to create a dedicated budget line for smallholder women farmers to improve their access to extension services, credit, and post-harvest infrastructure.
Daniel urged the state to invest in irrigation and climate-resilient agriculture, stressing that without significant investment in women-led agriculture and rural infrastructure, the food crisis in Bauchi may worsen.
