From Taiye Joseph, Joseph
A coalition of agriculture-focused organisations in Kwara State, has raised the alarm over the state government’s failure to allocate funds towards reducing post-harvest losses in the proposed 2025 budget, warning that the state loses about N94.5 billion annually due to the neglect.
Speaking at a press conference in Ilorin on Tuesday, the Kwara Budget Committee Group, which comprises 12 civil society organisations, under the ActionAid-supported Scaling Up Public Investment in Agriculture (SUPIA) project, called on the government to prioritise the issue to safeguard food security and farmers’ livelihoods.
Mrs Modupe Suleiman, Deputy Coordinator of the Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), lamented that the 2025 budget did not reflect any line item dedicated to curbing post-harvest losses despite Kwara’s significant share of the N3.5 trillion national loss figure.
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“Kwara alone accounts for N94.5 billion in post-harvest losses every year. Yet, not a single naira was earmarked in the 2025 agriculture budget to address this crisis,” she said.
Suleiman stressed that the absence of support for post-harvest handling contradicts President Bola Tinubu’s July 2024 declaration of a state of emergency on food security.
“Our concern is more than justified when you consider that only 26 percent of smallholder women farmers in Kwara have access to processing facilities, 10 percent to transportation, and just 39 percent have been trained on reducing post-harvest losses,” she added.
The committee also criticised the overall size and performance of the 2025 agriculture budget. According to Suleiman, the sector’s share of the total state budget dropped from 1.49 percent in 2024 to 0.97 percent in 2025 — a figure far below the 10 percent commitment under the Maputo and Malabo Declarations.
“We urge the Kwara State Government to significantly raise the agriculture budget to meet the 10 percent international benchmark and ensure that funds meant for smallholder farmers are not only allocated but also released and backed with cash,” she said.
She noted that out of the N15.6 billion allocated to agriculture in 2024, only N5.8 billion, just 37.3 percent, was released and utilised by the end of the year.
Mr Abdurrahman Ayuba, Coordinator of SUPIA, emphasised the need for a budget that is both inclusive and result-driven, noting that “for six consecutive years, Kwara’s agriculture budget has consistently fallen short of the Maputo benchmark.”
The coalition also recommended that all agricultural budget activities be centralised under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to ensure transparency and accountability in implementation.
The participating organisations in the budget review include Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), FEMCOM, Meadows Community and Development Outreach (MCDO), Connected Development (CODE), JONAPWD, Worthy Life Education and Health Foundation (WLEHF), AGRO-GEO, Olatunji Imran Foundation, Gold Spring Initiative, WECTIN, and Fulfilling Dreams Foundation.
