North Central stakeholders meet over dwindling allocations to agriculture

Forum 7 years ago

North Central stakeholders meet over dwindling allocations to agriculture

Stakeholders in the agriculture sector, from the North Central geo-political zone, on Thursday, began a meeting in Jos to deliberate on ways to address the dwindling federal and state allocations to that sector .
The meeting is at the instance of the Nigeria Association of Women In Agriculture (NAWIA) in collaboration with Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and the Association of Small Scale Agro-Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN) and supported by Trust Africa.

It has the theme: ”Validation/Sensitisation meeting on Strengthening Advocacy for Increased State Budgetary Allocation, Investment and Policy Formulation in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa States.”

In her address, the NAWIA National President, Mrs Ngizan Chahul, said the meeting became necessary, “owing to the numerous challenges facing the agricultural sector in the country”.

According to her, efforts by the government and the private sector, aimed at tackling the challenges, have not yielded much dividends, hence the need for the parley to address the issue.

“It is no longer news that the sector that puts food on our table is experiencing a lot of challenges in all the states of the federation.

‘“A lot of efforts have gone into tackling these challenges but the truth is that we are still far from finding a lasting solution.

“Our targets, collectively and individually, have not been met, making it imperative for us to gather here to fashion out some possible solutions,” she said.

She enjoined participants to be attentive and contribute meaningfully to the discussions, noting that agreements arrived at would form the basis for salvaging the agricultural sector.

“The sole idea is to make the sector viable; we must make collective and individual contributions to the effort of attaining that goal,” he said.

Participants were drawn from Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa States.