Bucyanayandi and Diouf during the meeting at agriculture ministry headquarters
Uganda needs to commit at least 10% of its annual budget to agriculture to ensure food security, outgoing UN Food and Agriculture Organisation director general has said.
In July 2003 during the African Union assembly in Maputo in Mozambique, African countries, including Uganda, committed themselves to allocate at least 10% of national budgetary resources to agriculture development within five years.
Jacques Diouf, who was on a one-day visit to Uganda on Monday, observed that only 14 African countries were about to reach the Maputo commitment.
He said there was need for Uganda to invest in agriculture and boost land utilisation with irrigation and water harvesting, improved storage of harvested crops and access to agricultural inputs.
?There is also need for farmers to get adequate income, which is an incentive for them to stay in farming,? he added.
Diouf met with the agriculture minister Tress Bucyanayandi at the ministry?s offices in Entebbe, during which the two officials reviewed issues affecting agriculture and food security in Uganda.
?The budget of agriculture should be 10%. We are at 3.8% and expecting to go to 4%. We are still in deficit in relation to the objective,? Diouf said
Bucyanayandi also noted that Uganda?s population growth rate at 3.5% per year today, is higher than the average annual growth rate of the agricultural sector, which is 2.6%.
Diouf also said the average annual growth rate of Uganda?s agricultural sector at 2.6% per year was an improvement in relation to the Maputo commitment of 6% across the continent.
The minister said the Government?s priority was to boost family incomes to sh20m per year from agriculture and to ensure food security by setting up silos at regional level.
By Raymond Baguma, The New Vision
Source: http://in2eastafrica.net/uganda-govt-urged-to-invest-more-in-agriculture/
champagne jailbreak iphone charlie and the chocolate factory tampa bay buccaneers kansas city chiefs drag racer v3 drag racer v3
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.