Allocation of 10% budget will promote food security - CCARDESA
…Eswatini gets 5.4 % of national for 2024/2025
DESPITE repeated promises to improve budgetary allocation, the agricultural sector has remained underfunded.
The Centre Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) has urged African leaders to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to the agricultural sector in order to promote food security.
This was extensively discussed during a three-day Knowledge Management and Monitoring of Malabo Commitments Training Workshop, organised and funded by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) XP4.
CCARDESA Consultant Martin Macheru called for the allocation of 10% of the national budget as they have been doing over the years.
Macheru also called on his counterparts to embrace innovative policies that ensure the continent’s citizens eat what they produce as well as export the
Worth mentioning is that with rising inflation globally and the effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that have driven up food prices, especially for basic staples such as wheat and maize, Macheru listed measures that African leaders must take to change the status quo.
‘‘Feeding Africa is an imperative. We must ensure that we feed ourselves today, tomorrow, and well into the future,” he said.
He said the starting point is to raise agricultural productivity, adding that this requires access to quality farm inputs, especially improved seeds, fertilisers and mechanisation.
‘‘To succeed, we must strongly support farmers. There is no doubt that we need to subsidise our farmers, but we must do so in transparent ways, remove rent-seeking behaviour and effectively deliver support to farmers.
‘‘The share of budget allocation to agriculture should be increased across Africa, especially for investments in critical public goods, such as research and development, infrastructure, especially roads, irrigation, and energy,” he said.
Ensure
He further mentioned that: ‘‘As leaders, let us decisively ensure that we meet the 10 per cent allocation of our budgets to agriculture as agreed in the Malabo Declaration of the African Heads of State and Government. We must reduce the rate of rural to urban migration through the development of rural areas,”
Members of Parliament in the country did at some point question when the country will implement the Maputo declaration if the Ministry of Agriculture is still getting 5 percent of the national budget.
In 2003, to improve food security and nutrition and increase agricultural incomes across Africa, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) adopted the Maputo Declaration on agriculture and food security in Africa.
The Maputo Declaration came into effect in 2003 and Nigeria upheld the agreement the next year, agreeing with other African countries to set aside at least 10 percent of its yearly budgets to agriculture. But the sector has remained underfunded in almost every African country.
For example, for the 2024/ 2025 national budget Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said the government continues to support Farmers through the Input Subsidy Programme being implemented through the Nabonal Maine Corporation (NMC).
“The main goal is to increase production and productivity. It has been noted that the demand for services under this programme has increased and 59 million has been allocated to address ths. The Agriculture Revolving Fund is proving to assist rural farmers and an additional 135 million will be allocated to this Fund,” he said.
The Government has also embarked on significant capital investments in the Agriculture sector. They are currently in the process of constructing the Mpakeni dam which will provide water for other developments mainly under the Showers regen. A sum of E1630 million s is the bucket has been earmarked for the 2024/25 financial year.
The government had a national budget of E29. 4 billion, of which the Ministry of Agriculture received E1.55 billion which is 5.4%of the national budget.
Information
Macheru went on to say that to feed Africa, they need younger male and female farmers. ensure that they get access to land, finance, technologies, information and markets.
He, therefore, requested that the food and agriculture delivery compacts arising from the workshop must address ways to improve the empowerment of the youth and women in agriculture.
‘‘We must take into consideration climate change and ensure that agricultural systems are climate-smart and climate-resilient,” he said
Other representatives said ‘‘We must invest heavily in irrigation to help address the increasing frequency of droughts that are leading to a decline in crop yields.
‘‘I am convinced that the very targeted and bold approach of using the food and agriculture delivery compacts will allow Africa to finally break through and feed itself.
‘‘Feeding Africa is not negotiable. Africa must grow what its citizens eat. As leaders, we must demonstrate political will and re-commit ourselves to producing for the continent’s needs, including surpluses for export,’’ he said.
Now almost 20 years later, many countries, including 13 studied in a new research, have not yet reached the objective pledged in Maputo.
Despite sub-Saharan Africa registering currently recording lower Covid-19 infections and deaths than other regions in the world, the latest economic projections from the International Monetary Fund say it could experience a contraction in regional economies by about three percent, with an average GDP per capita drop of up to 5.4 percent back to levels of the beginning of the decade.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, hunger in sub-Saharan Africa with Eswatini included was slowly rising according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation.
In 2019, an estimated 690 million people suffered from undernourishment, 235 million of whom were in sub-Saharan Africa. In the region, agriculture remains the main source of employment and a critical sector in terms of economic development.
The continent is facing an unprecedented economic crisis that could push an additional five million to 29 million people into poverty, end up to 19 million jobs and raise the number of undernourished people in food-importing countries by an additional 14.4 million to 80.3 million people.
A new report titled Public expenditure on food and agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: Trends, challenges and priorities, found few countries have met the 10 percent Maputo target, despite a renewed commitment in 2014 through the Malabo Declaration. Surprisingly, research showed that on average, 21 percent of budgets devoted to food and agriculture in the region were not spent, often due to either funds being disbursed too slowly or complications in project implementation.
“This says that large financial commitments are not sufficient to enable a country to transform its agricultural sector,” said the report, adding, “This is particularly true for donor-funded expenditures, where the share of unspent funds is substantially higher at around 40 percent.” reads the report.
Overall, a number of sub-Saharan Africa countries still rely on donor funds for their agriculture sector, with the share of donor expenditure as a proportion of total agricultural spending averaging 36 percent.
In Burundi, for example, agriculture relies heavily on official development assistance (ODA), where donor allocations accounted for 70 percent of the agricultural budget.