Monguno calls for separation of Agric Budget from MDAs

The Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture Mohammed Monguno, has called for separation of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development budget from other Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The Chairman stated this at the weekend in Abuja during the oversight visit of the Joint Session of the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture, calling for partnership and harmonization between the legislative and executive arms in achieving this purpose, explaining that agricultural activities are time-bomb as the rains don’t wait for it. He opined that the late releases of funds to the ministry have seriously affected agriculture development and production, which equally negatively affects Nigerian farmers. He said: “There is the need for the executive and legislative arms of government to collaborate to make sure that agricultural budgetary issues are removed from national budget in view of the fact that the issues affecting agriculture are time-bound. “Rains don’t wait. There is the need for the executive to submit agriculture budget separate from other ministries, so that the budget will be considered and passed. It will fast-track the sector and hit the ground running”. Monguno also called for the amendment of the Public Procurement Act, pointing that certain provisions of the Act have become a clog in the wheel of progress of the Ministry, which in turn, has affected food production in the country. Speaking earlier, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the releases of the funds for agriculture should coincide with the time of planting and production saying that the Federal Government would soon privatize and commercialize Bank of Agriculture (BoA) to enable farmers access funds at single digit interest rate. He explained that when the privatization of BoA is completed, farmers would own 40 per cent of its shares with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) obtaining 10 per cent while Federal Ministry of Finance will take 10 per cent and other investors 40 percent. Chief Ogbe noted that the situation where Nigeria has less than 15,000 functional tractors affirmed that the Federal Government would soon take delivery of 400 tractors to “boost agricultural mechanization in the country”, he stated. Tom Okpe, Abuja