Delayed budgetary release hinders progress
By MAILESI BANDA THE unpredictability of budgetary release has negatively affected programme implementation and the achievement of desired outputs and outcomes in the agriculture sector, March associates, researcher, Maureen Zulu has observed.
Ms Zulu said the analysis of the expenditure had revealed that programmes were not funded as provided for in the plans adding that this was partly due to funds not being availed on time provinces and other spending agencies. Speaking when she made a presentation to the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) on the assessment of agriculture policies and law in Zambia, she said there was a noticeable mismatch between the programmes contained in the annual budget and the plans the funds were implemented on.
“There is usually a mismatch between the programmes contained in the annual budget and the plans to the extent that even when resources were released for programmes, there are variations that led to resources being expended on non-core activities of the plans, “she said.
She further said despite the plans having had increased allocation to sectors targeting human development, the allocations to the agriculture sector in the budget was not sufficient to implement most programmes.
She explained that despite the fact that the agriculture sector had the 2016 Second National Agriculture Policy (SNAP) with the objective of increasing agriculture productivity there has not been adequate measures to diversify the crop sub sector.
She noted that the crop sub sector was critical given that one of the challenges with the implementation of the National Agriculture Policy was over the concentration on production and marketing of maize.
She said the non-application of the Lands Act to customary land will continue to have implications for certain groups of society especially women in relation of their rights to own land.
“If the land act is not broadened to include customary land, the situation will continue to compromise the security of tenures for most land users and this will in turn limit the extent of investment in agriculture among small holder farmers, “she said.