Agro-industry is best way forward
Mar 25, 2005
A DISPROPORTIONATE number of Ugandans is involved in subsistence agriculture. The final results of the 2002 national census indicate that 68% of our compatriots rely on small-scale farming for a living. Similarly, a whopping 88% live in rural settings.
A DISPROPORTIONATE number of Ugandans is involved in subsistence agriculture. The final results of the 2002 national census indicate that 68% of our compatriots rely on small-scale farming for a living. Similarly, a whopping 88% live in rural settings.
These statistics are a pointer to the level of Uganda’s (under)development, and they pose a challenge on how to uplift our living standards.
The logical way lies in the very endowment that we have — agriculture. Classical social transformation has, through the centuries, in different societies, been the metamorphosis from agrarian to industrialised economy, and then on to post-industrial. But for many, even the agricultural base was poor, with nature ranged against the farmer.
Uganda is blessed with just about everything a country needs to prosper from the land. Rich soils, regular all-year rains, vast and well-distributed water bodies, sunshine, a wide variety of crops, farm animals and fish, are a foundation from which prosperity can be built.
The challenge, though, is how to harness all this, and channel it into a big industrialisation drive. Land utilisation is still poor, with fragmentation militating against economic use. Could co-operatives at the family or village level be the answer? Can local farmers form outgrower groups feeding into large commercial farms and processing industries?
Whatever the answer, the way forward is in agro-industry — the processing and marketing of agricultural products, where Uganda’s comparative advantage lies in the world economy. Alongside competing in the world market — feeding Africa, exporting to Europe and America where markets should soon open up — the development of agro-industry would also engender greater urbanisation and the social benefits that lie in that, while also increasing productivity in the countryside.
A starting point would be in rationalising land utilisation, while also attracting private investment in agro-processing. We have the natural environment; we have the macro-economic environment. Let us use them.
These statistics are a pointer to the level of Uganda’s (under)development, and they pose a challenge on how to uplift our living standards.
The logical way lies in the very endowment that we have — agriculture. Classical social transformation has, through the centuries, in different societies, been the metamorphosis from agrarian to industrialised economy, and then on to post-industrial. But for many, even the agricultural base was poor, with nature ranged against the farmer.
Uganda is blessed with just about everything a country needs to prosper from the land. Rich soils, regular all-year rains, vast and well-distributed water bodies, sunshine, a wide variety of crops, farm animals and fish, are a foundation from which prosperity can be built.
The challenge, though, is how to harness all this, and channel it into a big industrialisation drive. Land utilisation is still poor, with fragmentation militating against economic use. Could co-operatives at the family or village level be the answer? Can local farmers form outgrower groups feeding into large commercial farms and processing industries?
Whatever the answer, the way forward is in agro-industry — the processing and marketing of agricultural products, where Uganda’s comparative advantage lies in the world economy. Alongside competing in the world market — feeding Africa, exporting to Europe and America where markets should soon open up — the development of agro-industry would also engender greater urbanisation and the social benefits that lie in that, while also increasing productivity in the countryside.
A starting point would be in rationalising land utilisation, while also attracting private investment in agro-processing. We have the natural environment; we have the macro-economic environment. Let us use them.