High input costs putting farmers out of business in Uganda

from the Daily Monitor

by Ephraim Kasozi

In Uganda, over 80 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and agriculture is their major economic activity but the policies set by the government have not benefited them for transformation.

As a result, the importance and need to involve the farmers in the policy formulation process so that the negative impacts of some policies can be minimised while implementation is enhanced is underscored.

Small-scale farmers lament that when the government liberalised the economy and divested itself from doing business, it left them at the mercy of traders.

“Since then, the prices of agricultural inputs have steadily been rising and they have now reached a point where the inputs are unaffordable to small holder farmers. The prices of inputs have either doubled or tripled,” says Ms Victoria Kakoko-Ssebagereka, the Chairperson of Kayunga District Farmers’ Association.

According to Ms Ssebagereka, a 50kg bag of nitrogen fertilisers has risen from Shs45,000 four years ago to over Shs140,000, a hand hoe from Shs2,500 to Shs4,500 and an ox-plough from Shs125,000 to Shs250,000 and a day-old chick from Shs500 to Shs1,000, making it difficult for a small scale farmer to access the productivity enhancing technologies leading to the vicious circle of poverty.

Ms Ssebagereka who is also the publicist of the Uganda National Farmers Federation said that the food and nutrition policy does not spell out in tangible terms how smallholder farmers are to be supported to attain food and nutrition security since farmers need to be supported in accessing the necessary inputs like fertilisers and pesticides.

The failure by the government to set up strategic food grain reserves is also a big concern to the farmers because they do not have good storage facilities yet if the government buys and stores the food grains in the central storage systems , it serves as an assurance that the farmer can access the food in case of crop failure, she said.

“There is no policy to ensure that the smallholder farmers use good quality seeds, planting and stocking materials. Often times, the seeds are fake with low germination percentages, the agrochemicals and livestock such as diary cows, piglets, and chicken are of very low grade making losses for smallholder farmers,” Ms Ssebagereka said.

She was speaking during the National Public Hearing on Agricultural Policy Issues affecting smallholder farmers organised by Food Rights Alliance (FRA) held at Hotel Africana, Kampala on Friday September 12.

FRA is a network organisation that brings together over 30 non-governmental organisations working in the agricultural sector.

Mr Onesmus Mugyenyi, the Acting Executive Director of Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment said the public hearing that brings farmers’ representatives countrywide together was aimed at raising issues affecting farmers and addressing them to policy makers.

She argued that water, the basic resource for agricultural production is not being given adequate attention yet droughts are very common and farmers lose crops and animals.

Mr Julius Musimenta, a farmer in Wakiso said the high food prices are a result of the significant decline in the agricultural sector due to lack of support.

“The agricultural sector is frustrated because farmers’ interests have not been catered for. As a result, many people have withdrawn from farming due to market failures and high input with low yields. This is unhealthy to the economy,” Mr Musimenta, also the Assistant Coordinator of Agency for Integrated Rural Development, Wakiso said.

He said the exploitative private entrepreneurs who earn more compared to the farmers’ yields have also discouraged the smallholder farmers.

The agriculture sector share of 3.4 per cent in the national budget is too small to develop the sector that constitutes the backbone of the economy, he said. Ms Rehema Kaaya, a farmer from Kalagala in Luwero District attributed the high food prices to lack of machinery to increase farm production.

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