AGRICULTURE BUDGET FOR FOOD SECURITY

Before legislators commence the debate on the Ministry of Agriculture budget may I submit a gentle reminder that in years gone by we signed various protocols stating our commitment to agriculture and food security including; (1) in 2016 the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Paris Agreement to fight hunger, poverty and climate change, the world’s first legally binding global climate deal.

(2) in 2003 Swaziland endorsed the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa along with other African Union Member States which established the comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) where the two significant targets were to increase agricultural productivity by six per cent annually through 2015 and to allocate at least 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development within five years, that is before 2008 and on December 7 2006 in Abuja Nigeria, we reconfirmed our commitment to that declaration through the signing of a ministerial resolution.

It is obvious from the budget allocation for 2017/18 that we are not adhering to such agreements and as we do not surely wish to be perceived as negligent, perhaps we should just withdraw from such agreements or provide valid reasons for non-compliance.
While government expenditure has been growing over the past few years, agricultural expenditure grew more slowly than other expenditure categories, and the share of agriculture in overall government expenditure has consequently, and without good reason, declined.

Given our current fiscal constraints, increased public expenditures on agriculture would presumably have to come at the cost of either increased taxation, an increased deficit or a decline in other expenditures, some of which are surely socially desirable in their own right (education and health) and they have a significant development impact, including on agricultural productivity and development.

It may be possible to review some other expenditures but that is for government and legislators of the day to reflect on and to proactively debate during this coming year while the 2018/19 budget is being formulated, so that when the new budget is presented in 2018 we may anticipate a more general acceptance of its content, and particularly that of agriculture.

We continue to unnecessarily import much of the food we eat, and all our farmers want to play a key role in our survival and future prosperity, but for farmers to perform well a sound and conducive environment in which to operate must be created for our farmers which must include fully serviced RDAs with adequate vehicles allowing the committed extension staff to effectively service and support the farmers.

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