Kwara smallholder farmers advise govt on post harvest loss management

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2 months ago

Members of the Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), in collaboration with a coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Kwara State, have advised the state government to make conscious efforts to reduce the annual post-harvest loss of ₦94.5 billion out of the national estimated losses of ₦3.5 trillion.

The group, under the aegis of the Budget Committee Group (BCG), with support from ActionAid Nigeria and the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), said that the losses could be reduced by increasing market access through the provision of processing facilities, upgrading road infrastructure, providing storage facilities and appropriate training on processing, stressing that investment in post-harvest loss reduction is imperative.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin on Tuesday, the Kwara State SWOFON Deputy Coordinator, Mrs Modupe Suleman, and the Coordinator of Scaling Up Public Investment in Agriculture (SUPIA), Mr Abdurrahman Ayuba, said that, “despite the alarming figure, the state’s 2025 budget does not provide any allocation for post-harvest loss reduction support.

“The Committee is deeply concerned about the potential consequences of this omission, particularly regarding the handling of excess agricultural produce in 2025. This concern is heightened by the national call for food security following President Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security in July 2023.

“Currently, access among smallholder women farmers in Kwara State remains extremely limited: only 26% have access to processing facilities, 18% to storage facilities, 10% to transportation, 21% to market access, and just 39% have received training on reducing post-harvest losses.”

The group, which said it is committed to collaborating with the state government towards achieving its agricultural goals and objectives, stated that it discovered, from an analysis carried out on the state budget, that the percentage of the total agriculture budget is low compared with that of 2024.

“The percentage of the agriculture budget to the total state budget in 2024 was 1.49%, while that of 2025 is 0.97%. There was a drop of 0.52%. The 0.97% budgeted for agriculture in 2025 is far below the international benchmark. We, therefore, urge the government to increase its agriculture budget to meet the 10% Maputo/Malabo Declaration and Commitment.

Given the low budget performance in 2024 and poor releases of funds for projects that support smallholder farmers, there is a critical need for improved and timely budget releases, along with adequate cash backing for budget lines targeting smallholder farmers in the 2025 agriculture budget by the state government.”

Also, the Committee recommended continuous training for women farmers on modern farming tools and best practices to increase productivity and enhance the agricultural value chain in Kwara State.

The group, which said that such training is germane to sustainable agricultural productivity and food security, added that, “micro-finance supportive programmes to women farmers should be encouraged to achieve this”.

The Committee, which commended the state government on the allocation of ₦103,074,000 for research and development in 2024, as against ₦96,000,000 in 2023, lamented that there was no allocation in 2025.

“We are of the opinion that to strengthen research and development, there should have been a sustained and increased budgetary allocation in 2025, given the critical roles of R&D in the agricultural value chain.”

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