The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

7.1.3. Grain Marketing Practices and Patterns
Ninety-nine percent of all farmers reported that they sell some crops under normal conditions.
Some farmers also purchased grain crops; about 40 percent of the respondents purchased
crops using their previous savings. Crops are usually sold in a staggered pattern across the
quarters of a year. Table 11 shows the share of total grain output produced that is marketed.
The share of marketed surplus to total output for Hetosa was 40 percent; for Ada, 63 percent;
and for Bako, 48 percent. With the exception of Ada, more than one-half of total production
does not reach the market; it is consumed within the farm household. That farmers do
produce a large assortment of crops and sell some proportion (not most) of it reflects the
extent to which production is oriented toward household consumption rather than sale.
However, the proportion of total production that is marketed—the extent to which a given
crop resembles a “cash crop”—varies among crops as well as sites. A considerably higher
proportion of total production of the major crops, wheat, teff, and maize, was marketed,
compared with other crops in Hetosa, Ada, and Bako. Obviously, these three crops are
dominant in terms of area cultivated as well as output. For example, 65 percent of the total
cultivated area in Hetosa was allocated to wheat production, and about 42 percent of the
output was marketed. Similarly, of the total cultivated land in Ada, 47 percent was allocated
to teff, while 32 percent was allocated to wheat production; the proportion of teff that was
marketed was 67 percent and the share of wheat marketed was 57 percent. In Bako, 75
percent of the land cultivated was allocated to maize, and 44 percent of the output was
marketed.
Table 11 Percentage of crops marketed of total output produced
Crops Hetosa Ada Bako
Teff 0.0 67.0 3.9
Barley 0.0 14.1 ---
Wheat 41.9 57.4 ---
Maize 5.2 0.0 44.0
Sorghum 1.5 --- 12.6
Horse bean 1.8 14.6 0.0
Field pea 1.8 11.2 ---
Chickpea 0.0 47.4 ---
Others 0.0 31.9 29.1
All crops 39.7 63.2 48.3
On aggregate levels, the proportion of actually marketed output during the first quarter of
2002 was about 51 percent of total marketable surplus for the entire year. The average
percentage of crops sold declines as one moves from the first quarter to the fourth quarter
(Figure 4a). To the contrary, the producers’ prices tend to rise as one moves from the first
quarter through to the third and, in some cases, even during the fourth quarter (Figures 4b–
4d).