Farmers appeal for increased agricultural budget

A statement issued in Dar es Salaam by the East Africa Civil Society Forum (EACSOF) and the Eastern and Southern Africa small scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF) said inadequate budgetary allocation and failed disbursements for agriculture development budgets fails the small-scale farmers.

“Majority of small-scale farmers are poor, the member states need to keep an eye for the benefit of small-scale farmers in a bid to alleviate poverty”, said ESAFF - Regional Coordinator, Mr Joe Mzinga.

The two bodies, representing millions of small-scale farmers across the region, want EAC secretariat and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to play a bigger role in ensuring poverty alleviation among small- scale farmers.

The famers want EAC secretariat and EALA to oversee by enforcing implementation of the Malabo Declaration (formerly Maputo Declaration) and its commitments in the bloc, notes a statement issued by ESAFF - Regional Coordinator, Mr Joe Mzinga.

This is expected to happen if EAC states legally domesticate African Union Agriculture protocols – Malabo Declaration and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Programme (CAADP) country compact agreement -- into a legal framework and possibly a protocol, which will be adopted by EAC states.

Mr Mzinga announced that ESAFF will coordinate a petition to be presented to EALA speaker on making implementation of 10 per cent budget allocation as per Malabo Declaration a legal requirement in EAC.

This is according to resolutions reached at EAC Small-Scale Farmers Summit 2016, which was organized by EACSOF and ESAFF with the support of European Union. The Malabo Declaration calls for 10 per cent agricultural budget inclusion and an annual agricultural growth of 6 per cent.

Maputo Declaration came into force in 2003 and only one EAC member state (Rwanda) has consistently increased its agriculture budget above the 10 per cent and ensured agriculture annual growth by more than six per cent.

On trade barriers, the Summit called for EAC Secretariat and Heads of State Summit to play a bigger role in pushing for enforcement of harmonised trade tariffs rules at state level.