10 Feb 2013

Shoshong MP, Mr Phillip Makgalemele has expressed displeasure at the amount of money allocated to the agricultural sector.

Debating the 2013/14 budget in Parliament, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party legislator complained that government under-financed the sector.

“Our level of budget allocation to agriculture is very low. It ranges just over two per cent, which is way below other African countries. The government must ensure that what is allocated to agriculture reaches the 10 per cent commitment made by the African Union,” the MP said on February 7.

He said under a commitment made by African Union members, at least 10 per cent of national budgets would go towards agriculture. He said government had fallen short of that mark. “We should be looking to attract more resources to agriculture,” he said. He said the country was missing plenty of opportunities availed by agriculture because government had neglected the sector.  

He said the 1991 fencing policy should be incorporated in the budget. He said if the policy was to be implemented, it would result in significant gains by the sector. The MP said by neglecting agriculture, government was effectively neglecting rural communities.

He welcomed the commitment by the Minister of Finance and Development Planning that primary schools would be electrified, saying it would benefit rural primary schools.

The MP for Molepolole South, Mr Daniel Kwelagobe asked the government to construct major internal roads in Molepolole. He said the village lacked a good network of roads. He expressed happiness that Molepolole would be connected to the north-south water pipeline to alleviate shortage of water in the village.

However, the veteran MP said the P70 million budgeted for the primary schools backlog eradication projects was too low. He said some schools still used trees as classrooms in his constituency. ENDS