A significant feature of the budget was a higher allocation for agriculture than in previous years. The Ministry of Agriculture was allocated Bufr43.2bn, about 4% of total envisaged spending, of which Bufr36.2bn was for capital projects-8% of the total-and the highest single allocation to any ministry. Confusingly, in his New Year's radio address Mr Nkurunziza promised that spending on agriculture would increase by even more, to 11% of the budget in 2011, although this was later clarified to mean as a proportion of domestic, and not total revenue. Mr Nkurunziza said in his address that increasing food production was essential for development in a country where 90% of people lived off farming. The agriculture ministry has been unable to spend its full budget allocation in the past and will almost certainly struggle again this year, but the increased allocation has been widely welcomed nonetheless as a signal that the government is taking rural development, which has languished for years, more seriously.