Senator: It’s wicked to allocate 1% of budget to agriculture

Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, has described as deliberate wickedness the meagre amount the Federal Government spends on agriculture annually. He was speaking at a public event, organized by Oxfam Nigeria highlighting the achievement of rural women farmers, high quality cassava flour and the need for active citizenship in the […]

Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, has described as deliberate wickedness the meagre amount the Federal Government spends on agriculture annually.
He was speaking at a public event, organized by Oxfam Nigeria highlighting the achievement of rural women farmers, high quality cassava flour and the need for active citizenship in the country. 
“A mere allocation of less than 1% to agriculture is wicked. This is unacceptable. Less than 1% to agriculture is deliberate wickedness that can only take us back to the land of Egypt. The recommendation by the United Nations is 10%; here we are with less than 1% appropriated to agriculture. We can never get anywhere with that,” he stated.
Jan Rogge, the country director, Oxfam Nigeria, pointed out that Oxfam is an organisation that implements on local level in many countries of the world, policy module with farmers-small scale farmers, particularly women.