Tanzania Agriculture sector budget allocation still far low

22/05/2015

The Tanzanian parliamentary committee on agriculture, water and livestock has agreed that the budget allocation and actual disbursements from the treasury to the sector is still not encouraging. It says it might take time to realise the Maputo/Malabo commitments to allocate 10% to the agriculture sector.

The chairman of the committee said the sector is likely to perform poorly as less than a quarter of the budget had been disbursed in the financial year 2014/15 by May 2015. The budget cycle for Tanzania starts in June and ends in July each year.

Speaking at a meeting between the parliamentary committee members and smallholder farmer in Tanzania a day before the agriculture sector budget readings, Professor Peter Mahamud Msolla said that only 24% of the agriculture sector budget had been realised and 16 % to the livestock sub sector”.

 The meeting was convened by ESAFF, MVIWATA and ANSAF to deliberate on the farmers views and concerns on the agriculture sector in Tanzania and how to enhance partnerships between the two parts.

Another committee member Hon. David Mwakyusa underscores the importance of farmers participation in policy formulation, implementation and monitoring to ensure maximum impact

“Smallholder farmers had proposed to take to task the treasurer and donor community if fails to disburse the budget allocated and passed by legislators in a specific financial year”.  Hon. David Mwakyusa a former minister for health commented and added that it is better to focus in ensuring that the small funds disbursed if utilised diligently for maximum impact as it will take time for the country to realise 100% disbursement.

He added that when the committee members were on one of the study tour in Singapore and it was told that the country disburses 100% of the budget which provide all necessary requirements to achieve planned projects.

Earlier, MVIWATA farmer leader Mr. Paulo Joseph from Manyara asked the committee if the budget that was approved in the financial year 2014/15 was fulfilled by 100% or not.  “If the budget was not fully disbursed in the previous years, what was the rationale to approve every year a new budget that is not being honoured” asked the farmer.

On his part, Hon. Meshack Opulukwa said that despite the fact the actual disbursement is less than what was budgeted still the sector budget has allocated small amount to development activities compared to administrative issues. Mr. Opulukwa is a shadow minister for agriculture, food security and cooperatives said that for the financial year 2015/16 development budget allocation stood at 27% which cannot guarantee changed in this important sector for majority Tanzanians