Joshua Kato
31 December 2008
Kampala — Last year was not a pleasant one for the agriculture sector. The food crisis reached unbearable levels in many parts of the country, largely due to poor weather and a failed harvest in 2007.
Farm input prices sky-rocketed, affecting farmers and animal food producers. On the other hand, the promised reforms in the agriculture sector have been slow.
Growth in agriculture alarmingly dropped. In the 2008/09 budget, it stood at only 0.4%, the lowest rating in many years. "This sector has performed poorly due to poor climatic conditions," finance minister Dr. Ezra Suruma said in June. One would have expected a huge financial push to enhance the sector. However, budget allocations to the sector remained at around 3.5%, which is way below the regionally progressive 10%. Regional governments agreed under the NEPAD/CAADP arrangement to maintain agriculture growth at about 6% annually and agriculture funding of around 10% per budgetary allocation.
Although some moves were made towards agriculture mechanisation, the impact is yet to be seen. In the budget reading, the government announced the procurement of at least 500 walking tractors. The plan was that the tractors would be given to selected parishes.
However, the hand held hoe remains the main tool for farmers. Positively though, the first tractor assembling plant co-owned by Iranians, was opened at Luzira, a Kampala suburb. The project will lower the cost of standard agriculture tractors to around sh40m down from sh55m.
Chicken producers have had a torrid year too. Prices for raw materials to produce chicken feeds soared, largely due to scarcity of key ingredients like mukene, maize and cotton seeds. "The government should stop the exportation of unprocessed cereals," Agha Ssekalala, Managing Director UGACHICK said. Prices of these raw materials are projected to remain high in 2009.
As if that was not enough, exports of chicken products to bigger markets in Kenya and Rwanda have also been affected. Several meetings were held to resume exportation of chicken, and by the end of the year, progress was made though proper exportation will resume in 2009.
The fishing industry also dropped further. A total of 11 fish processing companies closed this year. As a result, the agriculture ministry fronted fish farming as a way to improve fish levels.
however, no real efforts have been put in by the ministry to out roll fish farming across the country. Instead, farmers have continued to depend on individual efforts to further the sectosr. The trend might remain the same in 2009 unless the ministry bites harder against poor fishing methods.
Positively for farmers, food prices rose to their highest in a long time in 2008. For example, a bunch of matooke rose to as high as sh15,000, while a kilogram of flour rose to as high as sh1,500.
At first, farmers were not benefiting from this price increase, however access to information about food prices enabled them to increase their prices. Bunches of matooke that previously went for as low as sh2,000 on the shamba are now sold at over sh6,000. Coffee prices and exports also increased drastically.
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