4.The trend towards financing agriculture research and Agriculture Research Institute (ARIs) in Tanzania in the last decade 4.1 Research Financial resources The public agricultural research budget is supported by both the government of Tanzania (Local budget) and the Development Partners (foreign budget). Tanzania has traditionally been highly dependent on donor contributions for agricultural research. However, there has been increased commitment by government to funding. The government has recently committed itself to raise the budget for research in the country to 1% of the GDP (all sectors including medical, industry, agricultural research, etc). This commitment started to be implemented during FY 2010/11though it has not gone above 0.5%. Under this commitment, in the financial year 2010/11 a total of TZS. 30 billion was allocated to all sectors. In agricultural research this covered long term training of 43 researchers, implementation of research sub-projects and renovation of research infrastructure (screen houses, laboratories) for seven research centres to a tune of with Tsh 1.4 billion. A total of 33 MSc and 11 PhD researchers were recruited in 2010/11 at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania. Research work done by COSTECH, 2010 indicates that 0.02 percent of National GDP is used for financing research in all sectors. If staff salaries (personnel emoluments) are included it rises to about 0.05 percent of GDP. On the other hand, current government budget allocation and expenditure to public research have remained low; standing at less than 0.5 percent of Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (Ag. GDP), which is less than African region average of about 0.75 percent. Under NEPAD, as agreed under the Maputo Declaration in early 2003, African countries including Tanzania, had committed to increase their support to agricultural development to at least 10 percent of national budgetary resources, and to spend at least one percent of the GDP on research. The DRD receives an average of 10 percent of the total Ministry of Agriculture allocation per year. 4.2 DRD budget allocations The government allocation to public agricultural research has been less than 34 percent of estimated actual requirement for research operating costs. For example, at the formative stages of ASDP, it was estimated that resource allocation for agricultural research would increase by 20 percent per year over the five years. When ASDP (2006/7) was initiated, the overall budget for seven competitive Zonal Agricultural Research and Development and Extension Funds (ZARDEF) was estimated at Tshs. 2.25 billion annually for the first 7 years. However, actual payments did not match these pledges, standing at an average of Tshs. 1.35 billion. This funding was expected to come from donor’s commitments to research budget and, it was considered that by the seventh year, 80 percent of research funding would be allocated through the ZARDEFs. On top of this the government has been allocating local counterpart funds for research at a much lower level. However, the anticipated funding levels have not been realized, with funding becoming less and less over the years. For instance, in the first year of ASDP (FY 2006/7) only about Tshs. 0.802 billion was disbursed out of Tsh. 7.2 billion approved (see Table 1). In the following year (FY 2007/8), Tshs 2.6 billion was disbursed against the approved 6.9 which accounts for about 37%. However, there was improvement for ASDP funds disbursement in the subsequent years. In recent years, disbursement has remained robust in the average of more than Tshs. 4.0 billion (e.g. Tshs. 4.6 billion in FY 2007/8, Tshs, 4.34 billion in 2008/9, Tshs, 4.0 billion in 2009/10 and 2010/11). This amount of funds was received from development partners (foreign funds). The World Bank support though ASDP is likely to decline further in the next two years due to some donors’ withdrawal of funding
through the Basket fund arrangement. For instance, in the financial year 2011/12 only Tsh. 2,280,157,300 has been allocated
against the approved budget of Tsh. 4.0billion in the FY 2010/11 which is about 43 percent reduction.
Source: DRD budget document review (2012)
The Trend for the past five years of DRD funds disbursement in nominal terms has been erratic increasing from year 2005 to
2008 and then declining in the year 2009 (Figure 2). The decline was due to non disbursement of recurrent funds by government
particularly research operating costs. There has been no disbursement of research operating costs up to year 2011. The increase in
the FY 2010/11 is mainly due to the commencement of Eastern Africa Agricultural Productivity Program under World Bank
Funding. Under this project which is mainstreamed within ASDP is aimed at establishing a Regional Rice Centre of Excellence
(RRCE) in the country at a total cost of US $ 30 million for over five year period.
Source: DRD budget document
review (2012)
18 | P a g e
The table 1: Research expenditure by costs, 2009-2011 (in thousands of current prices, Tsh)
2009 2010 2011
Salaries and personnel
emoluments
5,779,966 5,597,985 7,425,081
