Nigerians demand progressive plan on Agriculture

Cowpeas mostly produced across Northern Nigeria

''Advocacy brief on agriculture if carefully developed would undoubtedly go a long way in enriching the quality of farmers' yield in Nigeria's agricultural sector and the time to actualize that is now".

Mustapha Kurfi of of the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) who made this observation in his goodwill message to participants at a program facilitated by the Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development (CALPED ) and her partners in Kaduna, revealed that the one day event with the theme 'Developing An Advocacy Brief for the Kaduna State Agricultural Advocacy Group' , was conceived and convened to enhance the on going efforts by stakeholders to diversify the economy through agriculture in Nigeria.

Yusuf Goje Head, Governance and Advocacy, CALPED, reaffirmed the importance of the State Development Plan, Sector Implementation Plan and relevant statistical data to developing advocacy briefs. "If you go through these relevant information and baselines and compare it to the current realities of the budget, clearly agriculture has not gotten the sufficient attention required from the government and other key stakeholders in Kaduna State, a situation that has seriously challenged the sector amidst difficult economic realities." he adds.

Other resource persons who facilitated the development of the advocacy brief noted that it is important for farmers and agriculture enthusiasts to approach advocacy with clear goals and objectives that will not just solve today's problems but also be sustainable to deepen the gains for the agriculture-dependent households and livelihoods in the state.

With over 76% of households engaged in agriculture and of the majority being around crop production, participants raised concerns as to whether such data, generated by the Kaduna Bureau of Statistics, were informing the state government's plans and spending on economic development.

Partners and participants who attended the event were drawn from farmers associations, cooperatives, youth and women groups, civil society and a development partner, PERL.

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