Ministry of Agriculture To Generate N904.7million in 2016

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture is to generate the sum of N904.739 million as its internally generated revenue (IGR) in 2016.

The minister of agriculture and rural development, Audu Ogbeh, who spoke during a joint budget defence of the Senate and House of Representatives committee on agriculture in Abuja, said the targeted amount included N664.998 million from taxes and N239.740 million from independent sources.

He said in 2015, the ministry generated N812.657 million IGR, out of which N593.748 million was from taxes and N218.908 million was from independent revenue.

The whole amount would be remitted to the appropriate authorities, he said.

Ogbe added that the ministry’s 2016 budget proposal was N40.918 billion, out of which N34.501 billion was for capital projects, N6.182 billion for personnel cost and N235.259 million would be for overhead cost.

He said the main focus of the ministry in 2016 was diversification of the economy, jobs creation, consolidation of the Gross Enhancement Scheme (GES), expansion of agricultural commodity value chains, establishment of staple crop processing zones among others.

The minister said the major challenges of the ministry were inadequate funding to attain desired key performance indicators, non-synchronisation of budgetary releases with the desired roll-out of agricultural inputs to farmers, insecurity and climate change, resulting in flooding and desertification.