ANALYSIS: Buhari advises African leaders on agric financing. Is he leading by example?

On 25 January, President Muhammadu Buhari urged African leaders to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets to the agricultural sector in order to promote food security.

Mr Buhari also called on his counterparts to embrace innovative policies that ensure citizens eat what they produce and export the surplus.

He noted that feeding Africa is imperative and leaders must ensure that the people’s welfare remains a priority.

‘‘To succeed, we must strongly support farmers. There is no doubt that we need to subsidise our farmers, but we must do so in transparent ways, remove rent-seeking behaviour and effectively deliver support to farmers,” Mr Buhari said in his goodwill message to the Feed Africa Summit of heads of state and government.

‘‘The share of budget allocation to agriculture should be increased across Africa, especially for investments in critical public goods, such as research and development, infrastructure, especially roads, irrigation, and…