I have just looked at the Kurdistan Government’s budget for 2012-2013 and saw that parliament has allocated 2.58% of the budget for agriculture. In 2010 at the F.A.O.-U.N.’s General Ministerial Meeting the recommendation was made that the percentage of the budget given to agriculture in developing countries should be raised from the 5% recommended in previous years to 10% now, two years later, the Ministries of Agriculture in both Kurdistan and Iraq no not receive 3%.
At today’s G8 meeting in Camp David, U.S.A. a great deal of time was given to the discussion of food security. All the G8 countries are not only rich but have a good agricultural sector and are concerned as to their food security. The EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) represents 40% of the total EU budget. It leaves me to wonder why so many Third World countries, including ours, are not interested in their nation’s food security. It is time that we paid more attention to this issue and follow the U.N.’s advice and direct more funding to the country’s agriculture and at least maintain the agricultural budget at 5%.
In addition we need to plan ahead more effectively when it comes to obtaining veterinary medicines, vaccines, fertilisers and pesticides etc for the new season. All too often the orders for these essential supplies are placed when the budget has been allocated and the season is well underway. The result is that the newly purchased supplies arrive too late to be used in the current season and, when it comes to drugs and vaccines that have a limited shelf life, there is unnecessary wastage.
No comments:
Post a Comment