Who Influences Government Spending in Agriculture? The Roles of Public Actors in Subnational Funding Allocation in Nigeria

The effective delivery of public agricultural goods and services is fundamental to boosting the performance of agriculture in many developing countries, including Nigeria. Making public spending more efficient in providing public goods and services, such as agricultural research and extension, is critical for increasing productivity growth and farmer incomes (World Bank 2007a). While fiscal decentralization in Nigeria offered new opportunities for the provision of public goods and services, it also created challenges for the achievement of public spending efficiency due to inadequate capacity and accountability at the subnational level (Khemani 2006; World Bank 2007a). A review of public expenditures in Nigeria finds evidence for both technical and allocative inefficiency in public spending, particularly at the subnational level (Olomola et al. 2014). Low budget implementation or large differences between budgets and final expenditures, as well as large deviations between capital and recurrent spending, at the subnational level underscore the importance of understanding the drivers of public expenditure allocations in agriculture. This type of understanding will help to identify how best to support effective public expenditures in agriculture and to promote efficiency in the allocation of resources.