GOVT CONTINUES TO PRIORITISE SECURITY OVER AGRICULTURE

MBABANE – Once again, government has continued to prioritise security over agriculture at the detriment of poor farmers.  When delivering the budget, Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini allocated about E1.4 billion to the Ministry of Agriculture which is about 6.8 per cent of the total budget while security forces got a whooping E2.7 billion which is about 13.2 per cent of the total budget.

Compared to last year, the budget for security forces increased by 0.5 per cent (E4.4 million).
While the budget for agriculture budget was increased by E660 million.

Observably, the security forces’ budget is 6.4 per cent higher than what was allocated to agriculture. In monetary terms, the Ministry of Agriculture got E1.3 billion less.
The 6.8 per cent is still lower than the recommended 10 per cent recommendation as per the The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

This programme is a critical Pan African initiative launched by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) concerning the agricultural sector policies in Sub - Sahara Africa.
The objective of CAADP is to help African countries reach a higher path of economic growth through agriculture-led development which eliminates hunger, reduces poverty and food insecurity, and facilitates expansion of exports.
Again, what has been noted from the budget is that the minister did not mention how maize production would be boosted through the farm input subsidy programme.

This is despite that government struggled to fund the programme in the current farming season and that led to the delay in planting.
According to the minister, among other projects, the allocated money will be spent on water harvesting as per the King’s directive.

Dlamini said the country would augment water sources in order to build resilience against future droughts hence irrigation development would continue in the 2018/19 financial year.
He said Phase II of the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project was well in progress.

“Funding from development partners amounting to E714 million was secured in 2017/18 to ensure that this project is completed and achieves its objective. We expect this project to add another 6 000 hectares of irrigable land for sugar cane and other crops,” he said. 

Against this backdrop, over 63 per cent of the country’s population lives below the poverty datum line, has an over 40 per cent unemployment rate and struggling to attain a food security status, but government has allocated a meager E3.8 billion into agriculture in the last five years.

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