Peregrine Sebulime
9 November 2009
opinion
Peasants form the bulk of Uganda's productive population and no genuine efforts to develop country can afford to ignore them. From the mid '80s, several attempts have been made to raise the incomes of peasants but it is distressing to note that, after two decades, the income per capita of the country has only doubled from $264 to $504; implying an increase of below one tenth annually.
The reasons for this poor performance came to the fore when public officials openly admitted failure of previous interventions like the poverty eradication action plan (PEAP). What explains the failure? Should we say it was a case of prescription of a wrong drug? Was the doctor or the drug aunthetic?
To these and other questions, certainly answers may be as varied as possible depending on analysts' point of view. Despite past poor performance, all Ugandans should strongly debate as well as suggest alternative interventions to reduce poverty among peasants. My opinions to the debate focus on the effectiveness of recent Shs60 billion credit support to the agricultural sector. The adequacy of this credit is in question in case we do some simple mathematics.
If it is understood that about three quarters of Uganda's labour force is employed in agriculture, with most being subsistence farmers, how much credit is effectively available to each farmer? My rough estimates indicate that about $5 is available for each of the 10 million peasants in Uganda - only 4.5 per cent of Millennium Villages Project estimate! This raises a couple of more questions, the cardinal one being; how many decades will it take an average peasant to double their income and escape poverty trap?
In health settings, issuing a suboptimal dosage is considered drug abuse! If Shs60 billion is a suboptimal credit facility and there are no additional funds, how best can we utilise this money to improve peasants' welfare? In my view, this fund should be used to open more seed multiplication centres and ensure timely delivery of sufficient crop varieties. This will prevent scenarios as recently witnessed in Teso region where just a fraction of cassava cuttings was available to farmers. Besides multiplication centres, the government should, in the near future, consider proposals of agricultural products' price regulation to ensure peasants plan better and gain confidence from price predictability.
Price regulation reduces uncertainty among the peasants and enhances profitability of farming since middlemen and processors' bargaining power is reduced. Price regulation has proved useful in improving welfare of peasants in the Sri Lankan tea sector. Although a number of authorities may argue against price regulation, for reasons of social justice and equity, the peasants in Uganda need fair pricing of their agricultural products.
It is only through the sale of agro-produce that the peasants generate income. With the seasonality of production well known to all, there are times of large agro-produce supply and it is at these times that prices nosedive! If fair prices at times of abundant supply were offered, this would greatly improve the average income peasants receive from agriculture. Moreover, in the absence of price regulation, even with land reforms, emerging climate change challenges are likely to worsen peasants' economic and food security.
Lastly, borrowing from Julius Caesar Act IV, I ask who will recognise the tide in the affairs of peasants and take it at flood to lead to fortune? So far, it appears, all the voyage of peasants' life has been bound in miseries and shallows!
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