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SADC meet pledges higher budget allocation to agriculture
2007-07-04 09:16:56
By Grace Tinda, IJMC
The government has said that allocation to the agricultural sector was expected to reach 10 per cent of the total government budget by 2010 as agreed by Southern African Development Community member states.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Christopher Chiza made the remarks on Monday in Dar es Salaam when briefing journalists about an ad hoc meeting of SADC ministers responsible for food, agriculture and natural resources held in Lusaka, Zambia, last month.
He said according to the Dar es Salaam Action Plan, each SADC member country was supposed to allocate at least 10 per cent of its budget to the sector.
He said other countries such as Malawi had succeeded in allocating more than 10 per cent of their budget to the agricultural sector while others were yet to reach the agreed percentage.
Chiza said Tanzania was progressively striving to allocate more to the sector, and assured that the agreed percentage would have been reached by 2010.
`In the fiscal year 2003/2004 budget allocation to agriculture was 5.7 per cent, in 2004/05 it was 4.71 per cent, 2005/06 it was 5.78 and in 2006/07 it was 5.78,` Chiza said
`Tanzania is doing the best it can and save for any natural calamities such as drought or floods, we hope to reach the agreed percentage by the year 2010,` the minister added.
He said the meeting also assessed the food situation in the SADC countries and realised that Tanzania was among countries which are in a good position in terms of food security.
Other countries included the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Zambia and Malawi.
Chiza further said that SADC members were in the process to establish a grain reserve to be used in time of food shortages.
`We have not agreed yet whether the reserves are to be established in every member state or in only one country,` he explained.
Last month the Agricultural Council of Tanzania said the government budget for the 2007/08 financial year had not reached expectations of the African Union for agricultural development as agreed in the Maputo Declaration.
ACT Chairman Elias Mshiu said 6.2 per cent allocated to the agricultural sector in the 2007/08 fiscal year was still a far cry from the AU benchmark.
The Maputo Declaration, among other things, called for all AU member states to devote at least 10 per cent of their financial budget to the agricultural sector by 2008.
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