Budget crushed for giving agriculture `fourth` priority

27 June 2007, IPP
URL: http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2007/06/23/93063.html

Dar es Salaam:  Stakeholders in agricultural sector have said the 2007/8 budget has largely ignored agriculture by according it `fourth` funding priority. The claim was made last by Dr.Timoth Nyoni, a senior researcher at the Economic Research Bureau (ERB) of Dar university at a post budget discussion forum sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF).

His paper on implications of the 2007/08 budget in the development of agricultural sector wondered why the budget should allocate mere 6.2 percent of its budget to the real mainstay of the economy, thus relegating it to fourth rank in funding priority.

This year`s budget has put education sector atop in financing priorities, allocating 1 trillion out of total budget. Infrastructure development comes second, having garnered 777bn/-, equivalent to 12.8 per cent of the general budget.

Other priorities and their percentages in brackets include: health sector (10 per cent of the budget), agriculture (6.2 per cent), and water (5 per cent).

Discussants suggested that the 2007/08 budget should have taken aboard relevant policies for the development of agricultural sector within the Mkukuta framework plans and beyond.

In his presentation Dr. Nyoni said the policies in question are mainly the Agricultural and Livestock Policy, and the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) or MKUKUTA.

Briefly, he said, the general policy goals of the Tanzania Agricultural and Livestock Policy is to commercialize agriculture in a bid to increase farmers` incomes and reduce poverty.

Other goals include achieving food security, increase export earnings, support and promoting agro-industries and environmental conservation. The budget then, should have adequately addressed these policy objectives, he contended.

Paltry as it was, he however commended the 2007/08 budget for having closely followed the MKUKUTA clusters as defined in the form of constraints afflicting agricultural development in Tanzania.

The constrains include, low productivity of land, labour and other inputs, under-developed irrigation schemes, limited capital and access to financial services and lack of entrepreneurial skills to turn non-farm activities into viable sources livelihoods and foreign exchange.

Other acclaimed constraints are poor rural infrastructure hindering effective rural-urban linkages, infectious and outbreaks of crop, animal pests and diseases, and environmental degradation.

The agricultural sector, said in the budget to have been ``broadly defined``, has been allocated 379.578bn/- for the 2007/08 financial year. The budget would be shared among at least three ministries.

It includes the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives; Department of Marketing of the Ministry of Industries, Trade and Marketing, rural roads under Prime Minister?s Office(PMO) Rural Administrative and Local Government and the Ministry of Livestock Development.

He added that the trend in the Central Government financing of the sector leaves much to be desired, due to the fact that the funding was not only small but also declining in percentage wise in terms of total allocation as part of the country`s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The challenge ahead for government is to align efforts and budgets with its own preset policies and strategies. The best way to do this, he said, was to commit more and adequate resources to the sector.