Treasury proposes Sh38.9 billion for agriculture sector
Patrick Ngare weeds his maize crop at his Kiplombe farm in Uasin Gishu County. An increase in the development budget for the agricultural sector is expected to raise production and make food affordable for majority of Kenyans. Photo/JARED NYATAYA
The Treasury has proposed to allocate Sh38.9 billion to the agriculture, livestock and fisheries ministry, with the bulk of the sector’s disbursement for the first time being earmarked for development projects.
The 2013/14 budgetary estimates released on Thursday show that Sh29 billion or three quarters of the total allocation will cover capital expenditure as recurrent expenses take Sh9.8 billion.
Compared to the current year when agriculture, fisheries and livestock operated as independent ministries, the allocation to the merged ministry is 11.1 per cent more than the Sh35 billion shared among them in 2012/13.
The increased development budget comes as President Kenyatta’s government seeks to raise production and make food affordable to majority of Kenyans.
The Treasury says the money will cover development of fish farming, construction of irrigation schemes, building of a strategic food reserve and strengthening research.
Mr Kenyatta’s government is also set to introduce a Livestock Restocking Development Fund in the 2013/14 year to cushion livestock farmers from losses induced by vagaries of weather.
The Jubilee Coalition has consistently emphasised its pledge to turn around agriculture as one way of keeping food prices down and easing pressure on household incomes.
“We intend to make food available and affordable to our citizens. We acknowledge that food alone takes up 40 per cent of the budget of ordinary household,” Deputy President William Ruto said on Tuesday during Labour Day celebrations.
The amount allocated to agriculture only makes 3.8 per cent of the 1.01 trillion budget, a far cry from the 10 per cent the government has been targeting in the last 10 years.
The Uhuru government is, however, likely to lump together all the money allocated to related sectors such as infrastructure, irrigation, environment and water in calculating the ten per cent threshold.
Last year, President Kibaki’s administration — which only allocated five per cent of the national budget to agriculture, livestock and fisheries — claimed to have reached the 10 per cent threshold after lumping together 10 related ministries that had a total allocation of Sh114.2 billion.
Apart from producing food, agriculture contributes close to 80 per cent of employment in rural areas, raw materials to the manufacturing sector and billions of shillings in earning from the export market.
In total, the sector generates 25 per cent of the total wealth produced in the country every year.
Beyond the measures planned for the 2013/14 financial year, the sector will also be on the lookout for Agriculture Investment Trusts (AITs) that the President and his Deputy pledged to create during their campaigns. The AITs are seen as a way of directing investment into the sector and offering incentives to farmers.
So far, the sterling performance of agriculture, helped by good rains, has helped to keep inflation below the psychological five per cent level in the last seven months.
The duo still has a handful of challenges ahead as they move to modernise agriculture. The plan to consolidate public departments offering services to farmers has attracted strong opposition from farmers.
The plan is in line with the Crops Act and the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Authority (ALFFA) Act assented to by former President Mwai Kibaki in December last year.
The legislation provides legal framework for the setting up of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority to regulate players under the newly merged ministry.
