Eswatini to explore cassava to substitute wheat imports
MBABANE – Imports are not beneficiary to Eswatini as they do not contribute to the economy and businesses locally.
:heat is imported in large Tuantities in (swatini, and researchers have advise the private sector and government to e[plore the use of cassava in order to substitute wheat imports.
0inister of (conomic 3lanning and Development Dr Tambo *ina said government needed to support entities such as the (swatini (conomic 3olicy $nalysis and 5esearch &entre (S( 3$5& , for analytical evidence that would inform public policy. SpeaNing during a panel discussion at the ,0) 5e gional (conomic 2utlooN session held at the 5oyal Swa]i Spa &onvention &entre, the minister said there was a need for e[perts who would obMectively analyse government policies and programmes so as to inform policymaNers¶decisions. 0eanwhile, consensus among the new government and e[perts was that the onus was on the private sector to turn the country¶s economic fortunes around. (S(3$5& ([ecutive Director Dr Thula Si]we Dlamini said priority should be on higher education, particularly because the country¶s future lied in the youth.
+e noted that the revised national development strategy NDS talNed to the benefits of investments in education accruing to the individual, hence the need to revisit the NDS, as the benefits of (swatini¶s investments in education accrued to the country as a whole.
³,f you looN at issues of globalisation and how these have affected developing countries liNe ours, there certainly is a need for government to upsNill and re sNill people,´ he said. ³:e cannot discuss higher education without talNing about the need to channel more resources into research and development, which is liNe the laboratory for future growth.
Infrastructure
,f you looN at (swatini¶s current spend ing on research and development, it amounts to . per cent of *D3 and looNing at the economic infrastructure for commercialising research and de velopment outputs that we have as a country, certainly we need to increase our investment in research and develop ment to one per cent of *D3.´ Dlamini advised (swatini to prioritise research and development in line with the coun try¶s developmental aspirations, adding that prioritisation should be in line with latest global developments that had seen the legalisation and commercialisation of crops deemed illegal in yesteryears. +e also noted that there were opportunities to introduce cash crops that would help the country trap money in the economy, such as cassava to substitute wheat imports. +e pointed out that the private sector could lead by introducing the necessary technologies needed to produce and mill cassava, thus creating more Mobs and forcing money to circulate within the economy.
³There is also an opportunity in the production of industrial hemp, which produces a lot of fibre using far less water than our current sources of fibre. There are also opportunities in the production of medicinal cannabis it Must reTuires channelling resources and finding a way of structuring the marNet such that it is not open to abuse,´ he said.