Posted on July, 26, 2019 at 10:49 am
TREASURY should allocate at least 10 percent to the agriculture sector in order to stimulate rapid growth as stipulated by the Maputo Declaration of 2003.
Agriculture Council of Tanzania Chairperson, Jacqueline Mkindi said in Arusha last week that the 10 percent allocation as was agreed by an African Union Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique will also help boost productivity.
“This percentage will increase the pace of revolutionising agriculture through research, irrigation schemes and warehouses, among others,” said Mkindi who doubles as TAHA Group Chief Executive Officer.
Agriculture which grew by only 5.3 percent in the last fiscal year, remains a leading contributor to the country’s gross domestic product accounting for 28.2 percent, followed by construction 13 percent and trade and maintenance 9.1 percent.
Official data shows that GDP is expected to peak 145trn/- in 2019/20 of which agriculture will contribute 44trn/- or an equivalent of 30 percent. “These figures give hope that if the sector can contribute up to 44trn/- with a subtle allocation of only 2 percent of the annual budget, it’s obvious that it can contribute between 150trn/- and 200trn/- had the 10 percent portion of the budget been invested,” Mkindi charged.
She further said that the 6.6trn/- out of 33.11trn/-allocated to all four ministries responsible for the sector, namely Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Regional Administration and Local Government, and Trade and Industry, is not enough to implement set priorities as per Agriculture Sector Development Program II.
“Besides Agricultural and Livestock Ministries, the budgets of most of the sector’s line dockets do not clearly show funds earmarked for the implementation of the ASDP II,” the ACT Chair lamented, noting that barely 717bn/- or an equivalent of two percent of the total national budget, was set aside, against the Maputo Declaration agreement, over a decade and a half down the road.
During the AU Summit held in July 2003 in Maputo, African heads of state and government endorsed the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa. Among the Declaration’s key benchmarks included the need by African Governments to allocate at least 10 percent of their annual budgets to agriculture and rural development within five.
Mkindi, however praised the government’s efforts in investing in rural infrastructure and logistics which is necessary in revolutionising the sector to grow rapidly and feed industries as being advocated by President John Magufuli’s administration.
She acknowledged that despite the low budget allocation to the agriculture sector, for the first time ever in the history of the country, the sector has been given priority in the budget, with emphasis on implementing the ASDP-II.
“The government has committed itself to continue constructing and maintaining irrigation schemes and to strengthen research on quality seeds and crops diseases,” she added. In the livestock sub-sector, the government had also promised to strengthen breeding of heifers,
sensitising application of fattening centres for cows as well as other technologies.
The government is also intending to curb outbreaks of livestock diseases and to survey and set aside sufficient land for pasture in a bid to avert sporadic conflicts pitting herders and farmers countrywide.
The government is further determined to finalise preparations for the construction of a fisheries port, procurement of big ship tailor-made for fishing, reviving Tanzania Fisheries Corporation and strengthening management of fish resources in Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika as well as along the Indian Ocean coastline.
Mkindi said in improving the environment for agribusiness, the government promised to strongly implement a Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) as it stipulated into its development blueprint. “To start with the government has scrapped-off 54 levies imposed by various ministries, district councils and agencies to do away with red tape and other nuisances facing members of the agribusiness community,” the ACT Chair cum TAHA Group CEO, noted.
She also commended the merging of Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) and Tanzania Bureau of Standards which has led to the scrapping of several regulatory fees and commissions while similar moves have also affected the Chief Government’s Chemist and the Fisheries and Livestock Ministry.
“We are also delighted that the roles duplication for various public institutions such as of the former TFDA and TBS will be streamlined to save precious time for investors,’’ Mkindi noted while also commending authorities for improving Value Added Tax on imported cold rooms for horticultural crops and allowed exporters of agricultural crops to claim tax refunds.
Source: Daily News