By Mamadou Edrisa Njie
The approved budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for the year 2020, is about D100 million more than the budget it was initially allocated by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
In the first draft budget presented to the National Assembly on 18 November 2019, by Minister Mambury Njie, the Ministry of Agriculture was allocated D394,983,515 as its budget for 2020. But after a thorough scrutiny of each ministry’s allocation, the National Assembly Members (NAMs) found that the allocation to agriculture was not reflective of the importance of the sector to the country.
Consequently, the National Assembly demanded an increase in the allocation, and apparently, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) concurred with the lawmakers. It increased the agriculture budget to D488,263,515-an addition of D93,280,000.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Momodou Mbye Jabang has commended the National Assembly Select Committee on Agriculture for spearheading the increment.
In an interview with Mansa Banko Online on Wednesday, 25th December, 2019, Jabang disclosed that out of the D93 million additional allocation, D20 million would be spent on buying quality seeds.
“The buying of seed from the Gambian smallholder farmers will increase their income and improve their livelihood,” the Ministry’s second-in-command explained. He further pointed out that, the seeds would be bought from Gambian smallholder farmers who are engaged in seed production.
On how they were able to convince the National Assembly to increase their budget, PS Jabang explained that they presented their programmes and policies such as The Gambia National Agricultural Investment Programme (GNAIP), the Agriculture and National Resource Policy, the Investment Plan for Accelerating Rice Self-Sufficiency, among others.
He said all these policies and programmes are already budgeted and are national documents that are geared towards the development of the agricultural value chains, market promotion, water management, avert food crises and other natural disasters, and sustainable farm development.
Jabang expressed optimism that the budget for the agricultural sector would be increased again in 2021, because of the achievements the sector would register in its 2020 programmes and projects implementations.
Expounding on the policy documents, he reported that the Agric Ministry, in partnership with the African Development Bank(AfDB), had developed the Agricultural Transformation Programme, and also with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), they developed the Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP).
COSOP is a framework for marketing strategic choices about IFAD operations in the country, identifying opportunities for IFAD financing and facilitating management for results.
The central objective of COSOP is to ensure that IFAD country operations produce a positive impact on poverty.
PS Jabang believed the budget increment for his Ministry, “is a good gesture” that The Gambia is on good footing for counterpart contribution.
He continued, “The government funding is very essential because when donors approve grants, they {donors} also look at government counterpart contributions.
“And this budget increment shows that the government is taking into consideration the importance of the agricultural sector.”
Solutions for better 2020 programmes
Mr. Jabang promised that in 2020, MoA would organize a retreat to bring together NAMs, especially the Select Committee on Agriculture, members of the press and other development partners to discuss the agricultural sector, with more emphasizes on policy implementation.
He told this medium that, during the retreat, the agricultural projects, activities and policies would be presented so that the relevant stakeholders would have better understanding of Agriculture Ministry’s direction and focus.
“This way, it would be easier for the Select Committee on Agriculture to argue for a substantial increase in the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for 2021,” the PS held.
He recalled that sometime in 2019, the MoA, together with the National Assembly Select Committee on Agriculture, visited some project intervention sites to see what the agricultural projects were doing.
10 per cent to agriculture
It could be refreshed that, at the Second Ordinary Assembly of the African Union in July 2003 in Maputo, African Heads of State and Government endorsed the “Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa” (Assembly/AU/Decl. 7(II)).
The Declaration contained several important decisions regarding agriculture, but prominent among them was the “commitment to the allocation of at least 10 percent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development policy implementation within five years”.
Mr. Saiba T. Susso, executive member of ACTIVISTA The Gambia, is reminding The Gambia Government of its commitment to the Maputo Declaration.
He stressed that the Maputo Declaration should be given considerations if the country is to move forward.
He also reiterated the clarion call for the allocation of at least 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development policy implementation.
According to him, the government of The Gambia is not on track in achieving the Maputo Declaration.
“Until and unless we are 100 per cent in charge of our food basket, we are not independent and development will always be a nightmare if we don’t properly manager our own resources,” he argued.
He cautioned that if the agricultural development agenda of the country is not put forward, “we will continue to be frustrated as citizens”. He added that the country’s “development will be undermined and our poverty level will continue to increase, and hunger will create room for corruption”.
Positive move
Mr. Momodou Sabally, former Presidential Affairs Minister in the government of Yahya A.J.J.Jammeh, said: “The budget increment for agriculture is a positive move.
“The agriculture sector needs budget increment simply because it’s the backbone of the county.”
Himself an economist Sabally explained that the government of The Gambia is confronted with finance, saying government’s revenue is mainly allocated to debt services, salaries and recurrent expenditure.
He further noted that due to numerous commitments that the government has with international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), expenditure is suppressed because government struggles to meet the deficit target that they agreed with these financial institutions.
“Government needs to reboot the engine of governance to make sure that the expected deliverables of voters are expected,” Sabally posited.
