New measures to tranform agriculture-One East Africa

Jan 31, 2012

HE had qualified to enroll for a Grade Two teaching certificate, but his dream was cut short before he stepped into class.

By Arthur Baguma

HE had qualified to enroll for a Grade Two teaching certificate, but his dream was cut short before he stepped into class. Although the course was free, he had to pay an entry fee of sh100. When the young David Kawawa could not raise the money, he was sent back home. “I was sent away and had to find means of carrying a mattress and a suitcase which were my only belongings,” Kawawa recalls. That was the last time he harboured ambitions of becoming successful through looking at blackboards.

With the future very uncertain, the young Kawawa retreated to his home village in Rukungiri. He did a number of jobs but, he never found a cutting edge until he ventured into farming. Today, he is one of the most successful farmers in his home village in Ruhinda sub-county, Rukungiri district in Uganda. He earns an annual turnover of about sh170m.

Like Kawawa many people in the East African region will have to venture into modern farming to get out of poverty. Agriculture is the backbone of the East African economy. Over 80% of the East African population depends on agriculture.
However, agriculture in the rural areas remains largely subsistence. Lack of agricultural modernisation is one of the major problems rural farmers encounter. Experts argue that if agricultural transformation in East Africa is to be achieved the approach has to change. Focus should shift to directly working with the rural farmers to add value to their agricultural practices.

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has continued his push for agriculture investments and has advised people to concentrate on agriculture. Museveni noted with regret, that many people are looking for riches in politics and not in agriculture, which contributes almost 80% to Uganda’s economy.

He defended the importance of agriculture saying that many people are joining politics in the quest for quick wealth, but investment in agriculture remains the most profitable venture in Uganda.

Similarly in Rwanda the country’s development framework- effort has been put in improving agriculture and coffee in particular. Improving the agricultural sector has been one of the government priorities to improve the house hold incomes of Rwanda farmers. According to President Paul Kagame, the Government of Rwanda is committed to further stimulating growth and significantly reducing poverty through agricultural development.

Agricultural development is considered a key pillar in these efforts, as well as efforts to achieve other development objectives, such as the international community’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

According to sources at the ministry of Agriculture, many farmers have been given startup capital to involve in high value agriculture. Forty-three percent of Rwanda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is from agriculture sector and live stock.

To check alarming poverty levels a strategy of one-family, one cow, was introduced by the Government of Rwanda. The strategy is to ensure that each poor house hold owns at least one cow. Sixty percent of the households, most of them in the rural areas live below the poverty line. The government, through the ministry of agriculture and animal resources is determined to assist farmers, improve productivity in crop and milk production with an ultimate goal to increase household incomes.

The agricultural and livestock sector in Burundi will benefit, over the next four years, from an investment of $40m from the European Union, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme.
The East African Community governments have taken measures to improve agriculture productivity to ensure food self-sufficiency and to improve living conditions in rural areas.

East Africa has had a long history of food self-sufficiency due to good soils, adequate rainfall, and hard work by the rural population. In the last decades, however, the food supply has been threatened by various factors including soil erosion and rapid population increase.

In order to restructure and modernise the rural environment, the East African governments have invested heavily in agricultural development and the prices of agricultural products have been raised repeatedly over the last year. Improved road networks and other infrastructure, provision of credit for agricultural improvements, and provision of affordable building materials and housing credits are among related efforts.

Tanzania
Tanzania’s average 7% GDP growth rate per year between 2000 and 2008 was due to increased gold production and tourism. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for more than one-fourth of GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs about 60% of the workforce. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and bilateral donors have provided funds to rehabilitate Tanzania’s aging economic infrastructure, including rail and port infrastructure that are important trade links for inland countries. Tanzania received the world’s largest Millennium Challenge Compact grant, worth $698m.

Rwanda
The 1980s and the 1990s featured slow and negative trends in agricultural production at the rates of 0.5% and -4% respectively (the latter owing to the 1994 genocide). This economic growth trend reflected a tight resource base, declining soil fertility, and an extreme low use of modern inputs. To reverse this decline and pathetic performance, it has been necessary to encourage changes in production techniques, including the intensive use of modern and better inputs. Production of food crops have throughout the period, dominated the agriculture sector (44-47%).
The five major food crops targeted for development are rice, maize, round potatoes, soybeans and beans. These are in addition to the traditional cash and export crops of tea, coffee, and pyrethrum.

Uganda
Growth in agricultural sector output, which includes cash crops, food crops, livestock, and forestry and fishing activities is estimated at 0.7%.
The share of agriculture to total GDP reduced further to about 21% in 2007.
The production of beef and coffee procured increased by 3% and 32% respectively in the year 2007. The fisheries sector performed poorly in 2007/08 registering a decline of 12.4%.

Burundi
The primary export crop is coffee, mainly of the Arabica variety. The government regulates the grading, pricing, and marketing of the coffee, and all coffee export contracts require approval. Other export crops are cotton and tea.
The government has been encouraging cotton and tea production in order to diversify exports. Palm oil is obtained from trees in plantations along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Tobacco and wheat cultivated in the highland areas also yield some cash income.

Kenya
The agriculture sector contributes about 30% of the GDP and accounts for 80% of national employment, mainly in the rural areas. In addition, the sector contributes more than 60% of the total export earnings and about 45% of government revenue. The sector is estimated to have a further indirect contribution of nearly 27% of GDP through linkages with manufacturing, distribution, and other service related sectors.
Kenya’s agricultural sector

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