Kaduna govt earmarks N74bn for agriculture in 2025 — Commissioner

Governor Uba Sani has increased funding for agriculture, introduced new schemes, and provided more inputs to farmers than any previous administration in the history of Kaduna State.

In the past two years, the Governor has not only boosted the budgetary allocation for the agricultural sector but has also distributed free fertilizers and farm implements to farmers and their cooperatives.

At the recent quarterly ministerial press briefing, the Commissioner of Agriculture, Murtala Dabo, announced that the allocation for agriculture in the 2025 budget is set at N74.2 billion.

Murtala pointed out that that amount represents 9.36% of the total budget, adding that 97.7% of the agric sector budget was earmarked for capital projects and ‘’only 2.3% was allocated to recurrent expenditure, reflecting a strong emphasis on long-term, impactful investments.’’

The Commissioner pointed out that only N1.48 billion was allocated to agriculture by the previous government in 2023, adding that the N74.2 billion allocated for this year is ‘’an exponential growth of 5,000%.’’

‘’Collectively, the budgetary allocations to agricultural activities in the Ministries of Environment, Education and Human Services have pushed the allocation to agriculture to over 12% of the 2025 budget, making Kaduna State the only subnational to meet and exceed the 10% Malabo Declaration benchmark,’’ he disclosed.

He further said that the Governor has distributed over 500 trucks of free fertilizer to verified smallholder farmers under the Agricultural Input Supply Support, ‘’the largest agricultural input support programme in Kaduna’s history.’’

‘’Under the ‘Tallafin Noma (A Koma Gona)’ initiative, 69,000 smallholder farmers were supported with quality maize seeds and agrochemicals during the rain-fed season,’’ he added.

‘’In addition, Kaduna State Government distributed free agricultural implements and inputs to cooperatives, comprising a 18 horse-power Tiller, an 18 horsepower 3-inch solar-powered irrigation pumping machine and a 13 horse-power 2-inch solar-powered water irrigation machine, and a gasoline-powered water irrigation pump to each cooperative to boost year-round farming.

‘’Each cooperative was also given 30 bags of Urea and NPK fertilisers, one motorised knapsack sprayer, one carton of herbicide and another carton of pesticide,’’ he said.

The Commissioner further said that ‘’under macro-mechanisation, we have procured a fleet of tractors to enhance mechanization. A new public-private partnership framework has been developed to operationalize these tractors via revived mechanization hubs.’’

According to him, the scheme will be purely private sector-driven but the tractors will be hired by farmers at highly subsidized rates so that the model will be sustainable.

Alhaji Murtala said that revenue acquiring from these private operators will be used to acquire more tractors’’, arguing that ‘’ there will be a penetration of this mechanization to all nooks and cranny of the state over the years.’’

Kaduna State is also developing the Agricultural Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC) with the support of the Afrexim Bank, which is the first of its kind in Northern Nigeria, he said.

The Commissioner said that the facility will complement the Special Agricultural Processing Zone, adding that it will ensure ‘’ that our agricultural produce meets both domestic and international quality standards.’’

Murtala added that the AQAC will enhance Kaduna’s competitiveness in the global market, particularly under the AfCFTA framework.

‘’This means that our farmers and agro-industries will not only produce more but will produce better—meeting the highest standards required for export and premium markets,’’ he added.

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