Irrigation top priority in Sh751 billion agriculture budget

Dar es Salaam. Promises to transform Tanzania’s agriculture have started to turn into reality after the government raised the sector’s budget nearly three-fold and put more financial resources into research and irrigation, among other key aspects.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan recently said the government would go big in the sector by improving irrigation and related areas to improve the performance of agriculture.

Her remarks were echoed by the budget framework that also hinted at increasing fund in areas of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, livestock, minerals and development of infrastructure projects.

The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, yesterday unveiled his docket’s budget that will increase from the current Sh294 billion to Sh751 billion in the next financial year, although Parliament’s Agriculture, Livestock and Water Committee warned that the sum was still inadequate.

Out of the money, Sh631.5 billion which is about 84 percent of the ministry’s budget will finance the implementation of development projects.

The irrigation budget alone will this time increase from Sh46.5 billion to Sh361.5 billion in the current financial year while the budget for agriculture research will increase from Sh11.63 billion to Sh40.73 billion, Mr Bashe told Parliament during the budget presentation yesterday.

“The largest share of the funds are allocated for the development of irrigation agriculture, crop storage infrastructure, enhanced access to crop markets, enhanced agricultural research, seed production and subsidies,” said Mr Bashe.

The government plans to increase the irrigation area from 727,280.6 hectares to 1,200,000 hectares come 2025.

To address the shortages of seeds, according to Mr Bashe, the budget for seed production will increase from the current Sh10.58 billion to Sh43.03 billion in the coming financial year.

Tanzania’s demand for quality seeds is estimated at 652,250 tonnes while the supply is 35,199 tonnes, he said.

Apart from the increase in the budget for irrigation, seed production and agriculture research, the government will also increase budget for warehouse construction from Sh2.02 billion to Sh25.16 billion while that of the extension services will increase from Sh11.5 billion to Sh15 billion.

Agriculture sector – comprising of growing of crops, raising and breeding of animals, harvesting of timber and other plants, animals or animal products from a farm or their natural habitats – grew by 4.2 percent in the last quarter of 2021, down from 5.3 percent in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The crops sub-sector expanded by 5.2 percent compared to 4.8 percent in the period under review.

However, Mr Bashe said the new budget will set a foundation towards realisation of the 10 percent growth targeted by 2030 – a rate that is expected to reduce poverty by 50 percent.

“This budget is an important foundation towards achieving the 2030 targets,” he said.

The budget increase was cautiously received by the Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Water which said the estimates do not meet the requirement of the agriculture sector.

According to the team, the agriculture sector needed a budget of at least Sh2 trillion per year.

“The budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for the Financial Year 2022/2023 is equivalent to 1.83 percent of the national budget which is Sh41 trillion. It does not meet the requirements of the Maputo Declaration (2003) and that of Malabo (2014) which require member states to allocate at least 10 percent of the national budget for the agricultural sector,” the committee stated in its report.

“We hope the Ministry of Agriculture and its institutions will increase their capacity of implementing development projects compared to the implementation of the Financial Year 2021/2022.

However, the Committee is of the view that, the implementation of development projects in the country can be successful if the Ministry is given the requested funds on time,” the team stated.

The Committee also said the increased funds were mainly from the soft loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hence asking the government to ensure its productive use that will also help the loan repayment.