Uganda needs increased expenditure on agriculture

By Ibrahim Kasita 

WHEN Overmers Oswelle graduated in agronomy way back in 2005 his priority was to go back to Akorokoro village in Apac to put in practice the knowledge he acquired. 

He embarked on mixed farming -rearing 10 zebu cattle as well as growing maize, millet, sorghum, and beans for subsistence as well as earning income. 

A year later he jumped into a bus and travelled for five hours to Kampala. 

He did not make a trip to sell milk, cattle, or the farm produce; he came to look for a job. 

Oswelle, the son of a peasant who had to sell family property to take him to school, has moved around Kampala several times in the hope of getting a profitable job. 

He said he has no choice but to remain in the city struggling because there is no strategic intervention in the agriculture sector. 

“In rural Uganda, we are poor and you can smell poverty. We would like to engage ourselves in agriculture because we have the energy. But we are switched off because of high prices for farm inputs and pesticide treatment,” he explained. 

Oswelle said pests, vectors and diseases caused losses. 

“I am told the Government delivered some farm inputs but I have not seen them.” 

He complained of inadequate focus on advisory services for poor farmers. 

Similar setbacks have occurred in other parts of the country. 

Many educated youth have left their homes and moved to urban areas in search for jobs. 

This has created high unemployment rate Uganda is facing. 

The situation is likely to worsen because the national budget framework for the next financial year has indicated a 3.7% decrease to sh336.2b to agriculture sector from the previous sh434.1b. 

This money will be used to increase productivity for food security and export-oriented commodities like maize, beans, rice, bananas, cassava, beef and dairy cattle and fish. 

The other priority is “to increase effort in the provision of water for irrigation, for livestock and for aquaculture, partnering with private sector and directly digging dams and valley tanks for farmers. 

But the money allocated to the sector in the next financial year cannot help increase farmers incomes, ensure food and nutrition security, create on-farm and off-farm employment opportunities. 

Likewise, the money cannot support the promotion of value-addition and domestic and external trade in agricultural products. 

Experts believe that increased spending in agriculture will help smallholders turn into profitable farmers if they feed the hungry and stop young and energetic people deserting villages to urban areas. 

Peasant farmers produce 80%of food consumed but the Government has failed to provide infrastructure and re¬sources they need to develop. 

The rural poor need to receive help because they are the ones that produce the food and we need to help them become profitable. 

“For too long, we have neglected the rural sector,” an expert explained. “You have to invest in the rural economy if you want people to stay in the rural areas. The youth are so critical.” 

There is need to increase investment in agriculture and ensure redistribution of economic benefits if all Ugandans are to prosper. 

“If we are looking to become prosperous, we need to transform poor homesteads into modern homesteads through agriculture transformation,” another agricultural sector expert who did not want to be named, said.