DAR ES SALAAM, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania on Tuesday unveiled its budget for the 2022/2023 financial year, saying it aimed at transforming agriculture sector.
Unveiling the new budget in parliament in the capital Dodoma, the Minister for Finance and Planning, Mwigulu Nchemba, said the government has increased the agricultural budget from 294 billion Tanzanian shillings (about 126 million U.S. dollars) to 954 billion Tanzanian shillings and will continue to increase the budget each year.
The government's aim is to achieve more than 10 percent growth for the agriculture sector by 2030, said Nchemba, adding that other goals are ensuring food security and supply to cater for domestic demand and export, increasing the value of export of agricultural produce from 1.2 billion U.S. dollars to more than 5 billion U.S. dollars by 2030.
"The government intends to increase sales of horticulture produce from 750 million U.S. dollars per annum to 2 billion U.S. dollars per annum by 2030," he told the House.
He added that plans also involved expanding the irrigation area to 8.5 million hectares equivalent to 50 percent of the total area cultivated in the country by 2030. ■