Government accused of failing to adhere to the Maputo declaration in the 2013 national budget.

Government has been accused of going against the Maputo declaration over its decision to allocate 1.865 trillion Kwacha to the agriculture sector in the 2013 national budget.
Former Agriculture Minister, Eustakio Kazonga says that Zambia signed the Maputo protocol, which states that 10 per cent of the national budget should go towards agriculture.
Dr. Kazonga says that this means that government was supposed to allocate 3.22 trillion Kwacha instead of 1.865 trillion Kwacha.
He says that this anomaly means that there is little hope of improving the agriculture sector in the 2013 national budget.
Speaking to Breeze News, Dr. Kazonga also noted that the 500 billion Kwacha allocated to FISP, the Farmer Input Support Programme will not assist small scale farmers because government is talking about diversification.
He explained that government has indicated that it has included crops like Soybeans, Sorghum, rice and cotton under FISP but wondered if the 500 billion Kwacha would support all these crops.
Dr. Kazonga also pointed out it is misleading for government to tell Zambians that rice has been included in FISP because the crop has been under FISP for two years now.