The Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) in its submission welcomed the 2014 Division of Revenue Bill and was in general agreement with the main budget framework. The Commission stated that it supports the promotion of economic growth, efforts at changing the composition of spending with emphasis on sustaining spending on core service delivery programmes. While the Commission welcomes the setting expenditure celings on the budget, the Commission reported that the setting of spending ceilings should the outcome of an evidence based process. The Commission in its submission pointed out that agriculture conditional grants have declined largely as a result of under-performance in these grants. The main reasons for the under-performance in agriculture conditional grants programmes are poor planning, procurement challenges, late submission of business plans and a skills deficit in some provincial agriculture departments. The Commission was of the view that the agricultural sector should explore how it can leverage private sector partnerships and improve co-ordination with other sector departments. The Committee was concerned with the overall decline in agriculture conditional grants and in particular the effect of budget reductions on food security.