WE NEED AN AGRICULTURE FUND

Sir,
Eswatini is not paying enough attention to its most important contributor to economic growth, which is agriculture.
You usually hear of youth funds, regional development funds and the like, but you barely hear about an agriculture revolving fund. This is despite that agriculture has many opportunities. The people involved in agriculture lack financial backing to expand and feed the nation. Until when will we import everything from outside the country, yet we have the capacity to grown our own food crops?When people think of agriculture, they often envision crop farming; soil and land preparation and sowing, fertilising, irrigating, and harvesting different types of plants and vegetation.However, crop farming is just one element of the agriculture. Agriculture also encompasses raising livestock; industrial forestry, fishing and agricultural support services, such as agricultural equipment repair and trucking operations.

Sustain

Agriculture helps sustain life by providing the food we need to survive. It also contributes to the economy. Despite agriculture’s importance, farm workers are among the lowest-paid workers.Agriculture also provides opportunities for economic equity and helps people prosper around the world. For example, since 2000, the agricultural growth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa has surpassed that of any other region in the world (approximately 4.3 per cent annually), contributing to the region’s economic gains.The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations says that agriculture remains the second-highest source of employment (26.7 per cent of total work). All this is reason enough to believe that we need an agriculture fund in Eswatini. It will be supported by UN agencies and other development partners. The many government farms lying idle will be used for farming purses.

The Farmers’ Bank that was established is taking too long to start helping farmers, yet food security is an urgent necessity. Some people are also making a living from irrigated farming, which comprises large-scale irrigation schemes, extensive riverine and flood recession-based irrigation. In many cases, irrigated cropping is supplemented by rain-fed cropping or animal husbandry. Another aspect of agriculture that we can focus on is water control. In countries that specialise in agriculture, such as Taiwan, the incidence of poverty is low. We can also focus on agrifood systems transformation needed to free the world from hunger and food insecurity and malnutrition.

At least 70 per cent of the population of Eswatini is found in rural areas. Most depend on small, family farms for their income and sustenance. Rural people grow the food that feeds their nations, but they are also disproportionately poor: Most of the women, children and men living in extreme poverty live in rural areas, not cities. Investing in rural people is a long-term solution to so many of the problems we face today. Hunger, poverty, youth unemployment and forced migration – all have deep roots in rural areas; and all can be vastly improved through investing in small-scale agriculture and inclusive rural development.

F Mkhabela

 

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