By Saio Marrah
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Sallieu Osman Sesay of Constituency 038 in Bombali District, has expressed concern over the limited budget allocated to the agriculture docket. Hon. Sesay said that the budget does not meet the Maputo Declaration.
According to the Maputu Protocol, an African Union agreement, all member countries should allocated at least 10 percent of their national budget to the agriculture sector annually.
“We’re all aware of the Maputo Declaration that African Presidents signed [committing their countries to allocating] up to 10% of the national budget on agriculture. So I want to implore the ministry [Finance] at least to bring up the budget on agriculture to 10 percent,” he said.
However, Hon. Sesay is not oblivious of the fact that the allocated Le422.6 billion, which represents 6 percent of the 2021 budget, is a boost to the agricultural sector. He noted that it will address some of the challenges faced by the sector.
“I want to commend the ministry [Finance] for the effort made in allocating at least 6 percent of the national budget to agriculture. It is laudable and I believe … it will change the narrative this time around,” he added.
Mr Sesay added that if the challenges in the agricultural sector are being handled with a better investment, the Free Quality Education, which is the government flagship program, will be easily achieved together and the issue of hunger and other economic challenges will be a thing of the past.
Sesay also questioned the 7 percent allocation of the office of Chief Minister, which he said did not make sense because the agricultural sector is much more important.
The opposition APC MP went on to applaud the Ministry of agriculture for the 180 tractors provided for farmers in the country, though he said that wasn’t enough to serve the purpose.
Speaking on some plan to privatize aspect in the agriculture sector, Sesay noted that the idea should be critically analyzed and reviewed by the Ministry before implementation, so that it could benefit the people for whom the decision is intended.
On procurement of livestock, Sesay said that the 2019 and 2020 budgets allocated Le3.7 billion and 1.5 billion, respectively, but that nothing was allocated for these sub-sectors in the 2021 budget.
Also speaking at the parliament during the debate on the budget, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Francis Amara Kaisamba of Constituency 020 in Kenema District, said he believed that the 6 percent allocated to the agricultural sector is enough to fund the ministry’s activities.
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