Budget Allocation for Rural Agricultural Development in the NWP: A Multiple Criteria Analysis

In the light of past development failures, coupled with the pressure on government to deliver on their promises made, a framework is needed to improve the success of rural agricultural development. Consequently, detailed agricultural development plans were drafted with the intent to provide a framework or roadmap that will enable small-scale farmers to be more successful over the long term. However, development plans can only improve the success of agricultural development once they are implemented. This conveys another dimension of agricultural development, with government that is often faced with strict budget constraints. Budget allocations to agricultural development initiatives should therefore be done in a way that will yield the highest economic, social and environmental returns. Such a decision can become extremely complicated when in search of optimal allocation of limited budget resources. Consequently, a decision support system that will guide budget allocation for agricultural development initiatives is sorely needed. This article provides a framework on how multiple-criteria analysis can be used as a decision support tool that will ensure optimal budget allocation for agricultural development.