Agriculture is still an untapped resource
Feb 25, 2010
This year’s national agricultural trade exhibition has just ended in Gulu. One of the key lessons was that Ugandans can earn big from agriculture if they put their minds to it.
By Enoth Mbeine
This year’s national agricultural trade exhibition has just ended in Gulu. One of the key lessons was that Ugandans can earn big from agriculture if they put their minds to it.
To a large extent, most ‘farmers’ in Uganda are still treating farming as a hobby, instead of a serious economic venture from which they can earn a living and create jobs for others.
Even the few Ugandans who are earning from farming are doing so on a small scale yet they could become millionaires if they did it on a bigger scale.
Holding the trade exhibition in northern Uganda this year was not a coincidence.
The region was once the country’s largest food basket but with the rebel insurgency over the last two decades, agricultural activity ground to a halt.
With peace now returning to the region, this is the time to revive and make the most of this gift. And with the land having fallowed for two decades, one can only imagine how fertile it is today.
The exhibition’s theme, “Agricultural Transformation for Food Security and Income Generation in Northern Uganda: Improved Access to Agro-inputs,†could not have been more relevant.
Investment-minded Ugandans should, therefore, ensure the agricultural boom works in their favour. We have heard over and over again that Uganda is the food basket for the region, yet this remains just a statement with farmers producing enough to only meet the needs of the local market. They hardly have anything to spare for the markets in our neighbouring countries.
In the last two years, the prices of agricultural produce on the local market have gone up by over 100% and the trend is not reversing, but escalating.
There are two lessons to learn from this information. Firstly, if more Ugandans do not wake up and venture into agriculture, we will soon not have enough food to feed Ugandans.
The only way we can curb the sky-rocketing prices is by producing more such that the supply can balance out the demand.
Similarly, from the information above, Ugandans should realise there is more money in agriculture than most of us think.
Take an example of maize; if one planted it on at least five acres of land, one would earn what an average corporate worker earns in a year and here we are talking about four months.
Moreover, you are assured of not only local market, but also schools and export to foreign markets like Juba.
In a bid to increase food security in the country, President Yoweri Museveni recently said the Government would buy all excess maize produced. This pronouncement means there is a sure market. What then is stopping Ugandans from taking advantage of this blessing? It could be fear or ignorance, but we hope they can overcome this soon and be the food basket that the region perceives it to be.
At FIT Uganda, for example, we have the Infotrade, an agricultural market information service, which was created specifically for research, process and to avail agricultural market information on a variety of issues including seasons, price details of seeds, current market prices, both wholesale and retail, and market trends, among other things.
Through this profile, farmers, traders and the public get to know and compare commodity prices across the country by simply sending their requests to 8555, on Warid and Zain lines and instantly get answers to their questions. Such a communication network is important because it empowers the farmers to make decisions from an informed position.
With available agriculture information at various agricultural organisations across the country, farmers starting out in the field will have a wide resource to learn from and little chance of going wrong.
Let us make the most of what we have in abundance — great farming conditions — and earn from agriculture.
The writer is the business development director for Infotrade Uganda
This year’s national agricultural trade exhibition has just ended in Gulu. One of the key lessons was that Ugandans can earn big from agriculture if they put their minds to it.
To a large extent, most ‘farmers’ in Uganda are still treating farming as a hobby, instead of a serious economic venture from which they can earn a living and create jobs for others.
Even the few Ugandans who are earning from farming are doing so on a small scale yet they could become millionaires if they did it on a bigger scale.
Holding the trade exhibition in northern Uganda this year was not a coincidence.
The region was once the country’s largest food basket but with the rebel insurgency over the last two decades, agricultural activity ground to a halt.
With peace now returning to the region, this is the time to revive and make the most of this gift. And with the land having fallowed for two decades, one can only imagine how fertile it is today.
The exhibition’s theme, “Agricultural Transformation for Food Security and Income Generation in Northern Uganda: Improved Access to Agro-inputs,†could not have been more relevant.
Investment-minded Ugandans should, therefore, ensure the agricultural boom works in their favour. We have heard over and over again that Uganda is the food basket for the region, yet this remains just a statement with farmers producing enough to only meet the needs of the local market. They hardly have anything to spare for the markets in our neighbouring countries.
In the last two years, the prices of agricultural produce on the local market have gone up by over 100% and the trend is not reversing, but escalating.
There are two lessons to learn from this information. Firstly, if more Ugandans do not wake up and venture into agriculture, we will soon not have enough food to feed Ugandans.
The only way we can curb the sky-rocketing prices is by producing more such that the supply can balance out the demand.
Similarly, from the information above, Ugandans should realise there is more money in agriculture than most of us think.
Take an example of maize; if one planted it on at least five acres of land, one would earn what an average corporate worker earns in a year and here we are talking about four months.
Moreover, you are assured of not only local market, but also schools and export to foreign markets like Juba.
In a bid to increase food security in the country, President Yoweri Museveni recently said the Government would buy all excess maize produced. This pronouncement means there is a sure market. What then is stopping Ugandans from taking advantage of this blessing? It could be fear or ignorance, but we hope they can overcome this soon and be the food basket that the region perceives it to be.
At FIT Uganda, for example, we have the Infotrade, an agricultural market information service, which was created specifically for research, process and to avail agricultural market information on a variety of issues including seasons, price details of seeds, current market prices, both wholesale and retail, and market trends, among other things.
Through this profile, farmers, traders and the public get to know and compare commodity prices across the country by simply sending their requests to 8555, on Warid and Zain lines and instantly get answers to their questions. Such a communication network is important because it empowers the farmers to make decisions from an informed position.
With available agriculture information at various agricultural organisations across the country, farmers starting out in the field will have a wide resource to learn from and little chance of going wrong.
Let us make the most of what we have in abundance — great farming conditions — and earn from agriculture.
The writer is the business development director for Infotrade Uganda