In the 2025 budget, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security received an allocation of about ₦362 billion, of the ₦55.6 trillion budget for 2025. At first glance, this looks significant. However, when placed in context, it represents less than 1% of the total national budget.
By comparison, African countries, under the Maputo Declaration, pledged to dedicate at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. Clearly, Nigeria is still far from meeting that continental benchmark.
This shortfall is not just a matter of numbers. As a result, inadequate funding limits the progress that can be made on crucial issues such as rural infrastructure, access to credit, irrigation systems, and mechanisation.
Though the publicly published allocation to Agriculture is ₦362 billion, how is this allocation spent? To answer this, it would be beneficial to examine three major themes.
Almost half of the agriculture allocation goes to agricultural universities and research institutes. This is because stronger research means better seed varieties, climate-smart practices, and improved farmer training. However, the challenge is ensuring that these academic advances reach the smallholder farmers in rural villages, who often lack access to extension services that can translate research into practical applications.
Another striking feature is the insertion of over ₦1 trillion worth of projects by the National Assembly into the agriculture budget. On one hand, this reflects attempts by legislators to channel resources to their constituencies. On the other hand, civil society groups warn that such projects are often constituency projects with limited agricultural impact. Consequently, a large chunk of funds may end up spread thinly across politically motivated projects rather than focused on transformative investments.
The budget also sets aside resources for rural roads, cold storage facilities, and agro-processing centres. These are precisely the kind of investments Nigeria’s farmers desperately need. Unfortunately, the allocations are so modest that it is doubtful they will deliver a nationwide impact.
By implication, smallholder farmers who make up about 80% of Nigeria’s farming population get very little immediate relief from the budget. Fertiliser and fuel prices remain high, and subsidies or direct support are limited. In other words, daily struggles with costs and market access are unlikely to ease in 2025. For commercial farmers and agribusinesses, funding for the research and processing may bring some benefits. However, these gains will likely be slow and uneven, especially if budget execution is weak. At the national level, food security remains precarious. The United Nations has projected that over 30 million Nigerians may face hunger in 2025. Unless budget funds are carefully targeted and transparently managed, this grim statistic is unlikely to improve.
1. Failure to Prioritise Farmers’ Dire Needs
One of the most evident weaknesses of the 2025 agriculture budget is its failure to prioritise infrastructure and market access, one of farmers’ dire needs. Beyond improved seeds and research grants, farmers greatly need farm-to-market roads to prevent produce from rotting before it reaches urban centers. They need cold storage facilities to stop tomatoes and vegetables from spoiling. They need irrigation systems to ensure year-round productivity.
Without these basics, Nigeria will continue to spend billions of dollars importing food that could have been grown locally, while domestic farmers struggle to sell their crops.
2. Over-Concentration on Research and Academic Institutions
Nearly half of the allocation is funnelled into universities and research institutes. Although research is important, it often remains trapped in laboratories instead of reaching rural farmers. In reality, many smallholders lack access to extension officers who can effectively translate research findings into practical solutions. Thus, the heavy bias toward academia leaves a critical gap between theory and practice.
3. Politicisation of Budget Through Lawmakers’ Insertions
With more than ₦1 trillion worth of constituency projects inserted by lawmakers, the budget risks becoming a tool for politics rather than development. These projects are often poorly executed, duplicated, or abandoned, reducing their real impact on food production. This politicisation weakens accountability and spreads resources too thinly.
4. Insufficient Scale of Intervention
The ₦362 billion allocation is less than 1% of the national budget (a far cry from the 10% Maputo Declaration target African leaders once pledged). With inflation, rising input costs, and insecurity affecting farms, such a small percentage cannot meaningfully address Nigeria’s food crisis. It is essentially underfunding a sector that supports over one-third of the population.
5. Limited Support for Smallholder Farmers
Smallholder farmers produce approximately 80% of Nigeria’s food, yet the budget allocates little direct support. Input subsidies, fertiliser vouchers, crop insurance, and access to affordable loans are either minimal or absent. This leaves millions of farmers exposed to rising costs, climate risks, and market shocks.
Farmers continue to abandon their farms due to banditry, kidnapping, and farmer-herder conflicts. Yet, the 2025 agriculture budget barely addresses agricultural security. Without tackling insecurity, even the best seeds, fertilisers, or storage facilities cannot boost food production.
7. Poor Attention to Value Chain Development
The budget emphasises inputs and some infrastructure but pays little attention to developing full agricultural value chains. Processing, packaging, branding, and export promotion are crucial for transforming farming into a successful agribusiness. By neglecting these, Nigeria risks staying stuck in subsistence farming instead of building a competitive agro-industry.
8. Weak Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
The country has a history of budget underperformance. Allocations are often announced but not fully released, and projects are rarely tracked to completion. The 2025 agriculture budget does not clearly outline how funds will be monitored, audited, or evaluated. This creates room for waste, corruption, and abandoned projects.
9. Failure to Address Climate Change and Sustainability
Climate change is having a significant impact on Nigerian agriculture. Erratic rainfall, flooding, and desertification threaten food systems. Yet, the 2025 budget makes no bold provisions for climate-smart agriculture, renewable irrigation, or disaster mitigation funds. This lack of foresight endangers long-term food security.
10. Neglect of Youth and Women in Agriculture
Nigeria’s farmers are ageing, and fewer young people are entering the agricultural sector. Women also face structural barriers in land ownership and access to finance. The budget makes little effort to empower youth with modern mechanisation schemes or support women with targeted credit and extension services. This widens inequality in the sector.
