De Graaff lowers budget

Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Wednesday March 5, 2014 10:32

The parastatals are the Botswana College of Agriculture, which will be allocated P101,406,510, the National Food Technology Research Centre (NFTR) getting P20,979,800 of the budget and the last being the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board which will be given P4,350,000.

The development budget proposal for the 2014/15 financial year is P720 million.  This is 14.61 percent higher than the current year’s approved allocation.

Most of the development budget will be given to the Department of Crop Production, which rakes in P527,742,000, or 73.3 percent of the budget.  A total of P320 million is allotted to ISPAAD, LIMID and IFAD programmes under the Agricultural Support Schemes while P200 million is for infrastructure development at Pandamatenga including the Zambezi agro-commercial project. 

The proposed budget for the Department of Veterinary Services comes in second with 18.05 percent at P130 million of the ministry’s development budget. 

The money is requested for the Animal Disease Emergency Control Programme for the completion of restocking of the areas in Zone 6 and 7 that were affected by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) last year. Part of the funds will be used for the construction and maintenance of cordon fences.

A total of P32,558,000, or approximately 4.5 percent of the development budget is requested for activities under the ministry headquarters.  The minister said that the main projects would be completion of construction and furnishing of the plant quarantine laboratory structures at Sebele, and the settlement of the final account for the construction of pre-fabricated offices at Ramotswa and Shakawe.

Research programmes follow with a proposed budget of P14 million or 1.94 percent of the development budget.

The money is for the construction of employee housing at various agricultural ranches and for activities under the National Food Technology Research Centre.

The Botswana College of Agriculture will be completed with a P10 million injection while the Department of Animal Production will get P5,700,000 for the procurement of a liquid nitrogen plant and accessories for the Ramatlabama Artificial Insemination Centre.