Parliament lobbys for agricultural budget increment

Parliamentary committee on agriculture has told agricultural stakeholders that it will lobby for increment of budget which is allocated to agriculture sector from 10 to 20 percent of the national budget.

The sentiments were made when the committee was meeting various stakeholders where they were discussing how the money for 2019 to 2020 budget has been utilized.

According to chair for the committee Sameer Suleman agriculture is a very important sector for economic growth as such there is need for more funds allocated to the sector.

In his remarks, African institute of cooperation Citizenship AICC project manager Leonard Chimwaza said “despite 10 percent being allocated to agriculture very little is being done by government considering that most projects done in the sector rely on development partners.”

He added that the time has come for the country to promote agri processing and value addition for the sector to become more effective.