Uganda: Six Areas for Improvement in Agricultural Financing
Posted by markcurtis on June 10, 2010
New report for ActionAid-Uganda
This report is an analysis of the Ugandan government’s agriculture budget. It analyses spending levels, the efficiency of spending and the extent to which the budget focuses on providing key services to small farmers – extension services, access to inputs, agricultural research and credit.
Millions of Ugandans are classified as food insecure, or hungry, and the key to addressing the hunger crisis in Uganda is to boost smallholder farming, especially among women. The reason is clear – most of the hungry are farmers, most of the farmers are women and nearly all the farmers are smallholders. Women comprise 80 per cent of all those working in agriculture while small farmers, working an average plot of 1.7 acres, produce 96 per cent of the country’s food.
But agriculture is massively under-performing in Uganda. Growth in agricultural output has steadily declined from 7.9 per cent in 2000 to 2.2 per cent in 2008. The government is currently failing to address all the challenges facing the agriculture sector. There are six urgent budgetary changes the government – and donors – need to make if hunger and farm productivity are to be seriously addressed. These changes are the need to:
• Increase government spending on agriculture
• Spend resources more effectively
• Invest more in, and improve, services that matter to small farmers, especially extension services, access to inputs, agricultural research and credit
• Focus agriculture policy on women
• Prioritise low input, sustainable agriculture
• Improve agricultural aid from donors
To read the full report click here
