Government will pump N$2.8 billion in the water sector for the next three years out of a total of N$7.1 billion allocated to the agriculture ministry over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
For this year the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry has received N$2.4 billion, an increase of 16 percent compared to the 2012/13 revenue period. According to a budget analysis by the Institution of Public Policy Research (IPPR), even though the allocation will grow by another N$130 million in the second year, the agriculture ministry has to do more or at least the same with less in the third year, when the allocation drops to N$2.3 billion.
A total of N$2.6 billion will be invested in rural water supply and sanitation, while the ministry plans to construct a second desalination plant at the coast by the end of the MTEF period. However, no financial information is available for the construction of the second desalination plant.
"Since the existing desalination plant is currently not used owing to the putting on hold of the Trekkopje mine, ways should be explored to fully utilise the capacity of the plant, before a second desalination plant is built," the IPPR says.
The IPPR is calling for close cooperation in determining the water demand over the next couple of years, as well as the supply capacity, including the possibility to expand the capacity of the existing desalination plant in order to avoid a duplication of supply. The agriculture sub-sector will receive nearly the same amount as the water sector, about N$2.6 billion for the next three years, and the money would mainly fund investments in agricultural research and veterinary services.
Veterinary services include the creation of foot-and-mouth disease free zones in the northern communal areas, but no further details are provided concerning the removal of the veterinary cordon fence or 'red line' that separates the northern communal areas and the commercial agricultural areas to the south. Included under agricultural research, is the dry-land crop production programme in the northern communal areas, which aims at increasing the yield over the MTEF period from 258kg per hectare for millet and sorghum to 300kg per hectare.
"Since pilot projects in the north have shown that with the use of conservation tillage and other management tools based on conservation agriculture, the yield can be increased up to 2 tonnes per hectare, the ministry's target is rather modest," the IPPR says, adding that the targets are lower than those set in the period 2011/12 to 2013/14, when the ministry aims at a yield of 375kg per hectare.
via The New Era
