Increase funding to agriculture sector, Kapotwe urges govt

Increase funding to agriculture sector, Kapotwe urges govt
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Thursday, October 08, 2009 4:49:52 PM

PROGRAMME Against Malnutrition (PAM) executive director Paul Kapotwe has urged the government to increase funding to the agriculture sector to get Zambia back on track with the millenium development goals (MDGs).

Kapotwe said yesterday that this should be in tandem with the Maputo Declaration of 2003 where Zambia pledged to increase funding to the sector by 10 per cent in order to achieve sectoral growth of six per cent, among other commitments.

He, however, said during the FNDP period, significant shifts in budget allocation undermined the commitments made for agriculture to grow at 10 per cent per annum and for agricultural contribution to GDP to rise from 18 per cent to 25 per cent by 2010.

“We need to be back on track with MDGs by increasing support to agriculture! The revision of the budget cycle enacted by amendment to our Constitution is a critical milestone in the economic planning process of our country. The fact that issues of national budgeting, resource allocation and development planning are constitutional is an indication of the importance the government places on these processes,” he said.

Kapotwe hoped that planning for the development of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) would also be addressed with the same speed and zeal as had been evidenced in the revision of the budget cycle.

“We are aware that revising the budget cycle may not necessarily mean more funding to our budget but that our national financial plans will fit better into many donor and cooperating partner funding frameworks and indeed into several institutional work plans. What is more, the budget cycle will also be within the internationally accepted Gregorian calendars,” he said.

He said he expected to see how the government sought to raise funds through broadening the tax collections and other inflows to finance budgetary activities planned for 2010, given that Zambia was still far from recovery from global financial crunch after-effects.

“PAM expects to see a citizen’s budget that will demonstrate governments’ desire to address the food, nutrition and income security needs of many Zambians who are constrained in accessing basic livelihoods needs like water, sanitation, health and education and other basic needs,î he said. “We expect the 2010 budget to be a people’s budget. A budget that will put the needs of an average Zambian at the pinnacle of national development by providing resources to the most needy sectors of our economy like agriculture, health and education.”

Kapotwe said 2010 should be the beginning of government’s alignment and compliance with regional, continental and global compacts especially in agriculture, such as the Maputo Declaration and the CAADP/NEPAD Compact, among others.