GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

­ABSTRACT

The study examined the budgetary allocation and Central Bank of Nigeria interventions to agricultural sector and attainment of food security in Nigeria. Ex-Post Facto research design was adopted in the study. The study area was Nigeria. Annual data for this study was sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin for the period 2000–2018 as the periods of major financial and economic reforms aimed at enhancing agricultural sector financing and food security and the economic recession. Hence, food security (FOS) (dependent variable), total budgetary allocation to agricultural sector (TBA), and total Central Bank of Nigeria interventions to agricultural sector (TLCBN) (independent variable) were used. In order to test the hypotheses, the obtained data were subjected to appropriate statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics and simple regression. For the inferential statistics, the test for significance was done at 0.05 alpha level. The result of the descriptive analysis proved that the overall mean and standard deviation for budgetary allocation to agricultural sector were investigated, and the result proved that the mean of food security (FOS) was 89270804.7516, which is very high compared to the mean of budgetary allocation to agricultural sector that stood at 28.7674 and that of Total Central Bank of Nigeria interventions to agricultural sector that stood at 7508756.2805. The result also indicated that the two variables have high level of consistency as their mean and median values are perpetually within the maximum and minimum values of these series. Based on the results, the study concluded that budgetary allocation to agricultural sector has no significant effect on the attainment of food security in Nigeria. Also, Central Bank of Nigeria interventions to agricultural sector financing has no significant effect on the attainment of food security in Nigeria. One of the recommendations made was that government should increase and monitor the budgetary allocation to agricultural sector so as to positively contribute to the attainment of food security in Nigeria. This is because budgetary allocation to agricultural sector over the years has not contributed positively to the attainment of food security in Nigeria.

KEYWORDS: Budgetary Allocation, Central Bank of Nigeria Interventions, Agricultural Sector, food security and Nigeria