Food security: Farmers urge Nasarawa to adopt inclusive budgeting

Farmers under the aegis of Association of Small Scale Agro Producers have called on Nasarawa State Government to involve community stakeholders in its budgeting process in order to guarantee food security.

National President of ASSAPIN, Joshua Jonathan, made the call on Friday at a one-day workshop on inclusive budgeting using Community Development Plan held in Akwanga.

The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Young Men’s Christian Association Mada Hills, an NGO, to enlighten community stakeholders on how to prioritise their needs and push for its inclusion in government’s budget.

Jonathan said that including community stakeholders in the budgeting process especially for the agriculture sector, would boost crop production, guarantee food sufficiency and security.

He said the community development plan approach would enable government to be more specific in budgeting and effectively monitor implementation.

Jonathan said the essence of the workshop was to enlighten participants on the role they could play in order for their communities to benefit from the government’s budget.

He explained that to contribute to a budgeting process, communities must harness their needs in a written document which would be presented to the government as the Community Development Plan.

“Communities can submit their CDP to their Community Development Officer at local government area level who in turn will also collate and send to Budget Department of the local government area for inputs in the LGA budget and state budget,” he said.

He said without a CDP, representatives of some communities sometimes are not aware of government’s​ plan for their communities, hence the need for adoption of the CDP to entrench impactful and inclusive budgeting.

He added that the use of CDP and citizens engagement and participation in governance, especially on what is budgeted for their communities was pivotal to accelerating growth in the communities.