The Uganda 2011/2012
budget has been exhaustively discussed, debated and reflected on in the wider
media, blog dashboards, twitter, facebook, trading centres, bars, wedding
meetings, in saunas and sports clubs etc. Ugandans are now awaiting its full
implementation. Fast-foward, one year from now when a new budget (2012/2013) is
read, winners and losers could be different. Why? Because endemic fault-line in
our budget architecture is largely embedded in implementation and not the smart
budget speeches studded with admirable allocative efficiency.
Citizenes must be
keen on budget implementation, follow the budget figures line by line and
shilling by shilling to ensure that the budget achieves its objectives. The
farmers fraternity remains in dilemma for policy actors and economists continue
to argue that most budget lines/ allocations be it energy, infrastructure,
water etc, have a direct and indirect link to fortunes of the agriculture
sector. When prices of farm produce hit the loof, they say that farmers are in
things! In spite of the foregoing, farmers have remained at the bottom of
wealth pyramid, productivity for crop farmers has plummated to an all time low
of 0.3% in real GDP growth from 6% ten years ago when NAADS started! Yet a lot of explaining continues to be done,
justifications merchandised on why the status quo is skewed against farmers.
Today, I will not indulge in this debate. I will talk about the hoe. I will
talk about hoeconomics and the dilemma of farmers and diggers in Uganda.
The minster of
Finance Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Maria Kiwauka announced removal
of import duty on hand hoes from
10 percent to 0 percent.
In her considered wisdom, this will reduce the burden of farmers who in this 21st
century are still using hoes to plough the fields to feed 33 million Ugandans.
It was a good gesture, and a symbolic one at best. Yet the questions we need to
be asking ourselves are quite many; Do
we have crop failures because hoes are expensive? Has productivity dwindled
because farmers cannot afford hoes? Are farmers harvesting low prices because
hoes are unaffordable? No! The problem is the hoe. And again the problem is not
the hoe!
Look! On the 4th
of February 2011, myself and a team from Uganda National Farmers Federation
started farmers fireplace conversations. On the Morning of 5th
February we visited Mrs. Apuli of Bishozi, Nkoma Sub county, Kamwenge district.
She runs 2 acres, one for bananas and another for pineapples. We had a farm
walk and later before meeting the diary group sat around mid morning fire to
have a honest conversation on the challenges she faces as a farmer.
The problem
expensive labour. Period! She hires 5 casual laborers per day and each takes
UGX3500 for six hours of work at the farm. In a day she spends UGX17500! Yet
her far side of the banana farm, we observed that it was not well maintained.
The five casual laborers are not enough. Yet if she had a hand tractor, or as a
pool of Nkoma Farmers Association had a tractor, she would be spending a
quarter of the UGX 17500. She was frank! She said she is a digger and not a
farmer! That farmers use labour saving technologies and inputs like fertilizer
to maximize output and returns. That diggers use hoes and other stone age implements
and are subsistence! Yet her resilience and hope that one day, one day she will
overcome was evident. She was radiant and smiling to the future.
Looking at Hon.
Kiwanuka's budget, my thoughts went to Mrs Apuli, in Kamwenge. She sees no
difference, she sees the budget as a ritual that wont transform her enterprise.
Yet if she had more information, and specific guidelines on how to access part
of the UGX 60 billion loan facility, perhaps she can buy a hand tractor, or as
reach out to her farmer friends, pull resources and buy a tractor. Indeed her
operational constraints zoom the story of most Ugandan farmers and diggers.
Honestly, the hoe
will and can never transform agriculture in Uganda. Long gone are the days of
gifted by nature and fertile soils! Our water resources are dwindling and our
soils are hungry for nourishment. We lose UGX225 billion is soil degradation
every year, only 8% of our farmers use any form of fertilizer and only 6% see
an extension worker in a given year! As a country, are we ready to transform
agriculture? Opportunities are massive; we can harness the ingenuity of our
farmers, leverage our water resources for irrigation, tap into mobile
technology to pursue digital extension services to more farmers, create a value
addition fund to deepen agroprocessing, value retention and create jobs in the
agriculture sector. Mobilize farmers into cooperatives to pull resources,
skills and marshal market penetration capabilities. There are myraid solutions.
We need to sit around a fireplace and have a honest conversation, for our
niche' as a country remains interwoven in the fortunes of agriculture sector.
Morrison Rwakakamba
Chief
Executive Officer
Agency
for Transformation
Re-imagining agricultural and
environmental policy
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