Tue, 04 Jul 2017 10:47:12 +0000
By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
ZAMBIA is among the 10 Sub-Saharan African countries that spends roughly US$1.2 billion annually on input subsidies, particularly on fertilisers and yet yielding low positive results, the World Bank has revealed.
Other countries in the category are Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia.
The Bank in its 9th Zambia Economic Brief: Reaping Richer Returns from Public Expenditures in Agriculture launched last week, said despite such huge amount of funds being spent, the increment in total fertiliser use was smaller than was distributed.
For Zambia in particular, the Bank said the agriculture budget was unbalanced as it was dominated by the Farmers Input Support Programme (FISP) and the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
“The savings from more efficient and effective agriculture expenditure are not expected to contribute to the pressing need for fiscal consolidation, instead, any resources made available from the improved design of interventions are expected to be re-invested into the sector to improve productivity and job creation,” reads the report.
It said evidence from surveys conducted by the Bank suggested that in Zambia, the value added segment of the agriculture sector was lower than in many other countries.
The bank said Zambia increased its agriculture spending from below 2 percent of the national budget in the early 2000s to 10 percent in 2011, and that it had fluctuated between 5.4 percent and 1 percent.
According to the Bank, a crucial element in enhancing agricultural productivity growth was improving the provision of productive investments through better public spending in agriculture.
It further said the composition of unbalanced spending in agriculture and shortcomings in the national budget process contributed to poor rate of return on Government’s investment.
“Rebalancing the composition of public agricultural spending toward high return investments could reap massive payoff. The resurgence of input subsidy programmes has taken place across the continent and not just in Zambia,” reads the report.
