The Federal Government has unveiled a comprehensive 10-year Agrifood System Strategy and Action Plan aimed to transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector, boost food security and align the country’s policies with the African Union’s 2025 Kampala Declaration on agricultural development.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, announced this on Thursday at the Agrifood Systems Working Group Meeting in Abuja, saying President Bola Tinubu directed the ministry to develop a long-term, bankable and implementable roadmap to reposition Nigeria’s agrifood system.

Kyari said the strategy was developed through extensive consultations and validation meetings across the six geopolitical zones and at the national level to ensure broad stakeholder participation and national ownership.

According to him, the plan will be presented for adoption by stakeholders before being forwarded to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval, after which ministries, departments and agencies will align their programmes and budgets with its objectives.

He said the strategy supports the implementation of the African Union’s Kampala Declaration, which commits member states to increasing agrifood output, expanding intra-African agricultural trade, reducing post-harvest losses, improving access to healthy diets, cutting poverty and increasing investment in the sector.

The minister stressed that effective governance would be central to achieving the declaration’s targets, describing it as the foundation for sustainable production, investment, food security, inclusiveness and resilience.

Meanwhile ActionAid Nigeria has raised concerns over the poor level of public investment in agriculture, revealing that the combined agricultural budget allocation of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory for 2026 is only 4.58 per cent, far below the 10 per cent target agreed under African Union commitments.

ActionAid Nigeria’s Food Systems Specialist, Azubike Nwokoye, said the organisation’s analysis of agricultural spending across the country showed that Nigeria performed poorly in capital investment in the sector between 2023 and 2025.

Presenting findings contained in a newly developed dashboard that assessed agricultural spending across the 36 states and the FCT, Nwokoye clarified that the 4.58 per cent figure represented budget allocations rather than actual expenditure.

According to him, the assessment found that in 2025, 16 states recorded low capital spending on agriculture, eight states posted moderate performance, while only 10 states achieved high performance.

He noted that many states allocated only about three per cent of their capital budgets to agriculture, adding that capital expenditure by the Federal Government on the sector in 2025 was also low.

He stressed the need for governments to rethink how agricultural investments are prioritised and announced that ActionAid would conduct further analysis to identify value chains that deserve greater investment.

The food systems specialist said the organisation also analysed the potential economic impact of states’ projected 2026 agricultural spending using their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) baseline.

He said full implementation of the agricultural budgets by states could create about 1.4 million direct quality jobs, while projected federal spending could generate an additional 2.1 million direct jobs, bringing the national total to about 3.5 million direct jobs.

According to him, increasing investment in agriculture beyond current allocations would further boost employment opportunities.

Nwokoye urged governments at all levels to take urgent steps, including the use of supplementary budgets where necessary, to increase investment in agriculture and meet the commitments contained in the Maputo, Malabo and Kampala declarations.

The meeting had In attendance representative of the Ministers of Budget and National Planning, Women Affairs and other critical stakeholders in the agricultural sector. (The Guardian)

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