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

(PMA p. 27). It also requires improved market access for both outputs and inputs. Low
productivity in Uganda can be traced to a virtual absence of modern inputs such as improved
varieties of crops and livestock breeds, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation. The low level of
input usage can be directly linked to the virtual absence of an efficient distribution network
(PMA p. 47).
Unfortunately, while the PMA presents clear ideological precepts for private sector led
agricultural development, it is coming under increasing criticism for not offering a clear plan of
action for achieving these objectives in the near term. An implementable, results-oriented
strategy for facilitating improved access to critical private sector services needs to be put in place
soon, before government gets pressured back down the path of government led inefficiency. It is
not sufficient to lay the responsibility at the feet of the private sector and expect the problems to
be miraculously solved. Critical institutional constraints must be removed. Public goods like
market information; agricultural research and agricultural credit can be supplied more efficiently
by private sector providers, but will never be profitable in and of themselves. They will require
substantial public investment for the indefinite future. They payoff in increased productivity of
the agricultural sector, however, makes them a worthwhile public investment.
3.4.2 Summary of Issues and Recommendations
Agricultural productivity must be the engine of growth for Uganda. This requires substantial
investment in breaking the critical constraints facing the sector. The worst of the distortions
created by price controls and government subsidies for provision of services have been removed.
Macro financial policy reform has achieved as much as it can, but the agricultural sector is still
beset with inefficiencies resulting from its subsistence roots. Small farmers remain trapped in a
vicious cycle of “low input-low output” production. Strategies to facilitate and strengthen private
sector led growth need to be developed. It will not happen automatically. Investment in the
agricultural sector needs to be increased, but channeled into facilitating services such as rural
credit, strengthening of private sector input distribution, providing access to market information,
encouraging market linkages, and strengthening of agricultural education. Establishment of the
National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAADS), while essential, is only one step in the
process.
3.5 Irrigation
The critical triangle recognizes that efforts to protect wild biodiversity must acknowledge the
equally pressing need for productive land to produce food, secure rural livelihoods, and
contribute to economic development. Between 1950 and 1995, the human population increased
by 122 percent while the world’s area planted with grain expanded by only 17 percent.
Conversely, grain productivity, increased by 141 percent, largely due to the use of improved
varieties and chemical fertilizers. Irrigation has contributed greatly to this higher productivity,
with the area under irrigation increasing from about 140 to 270 million ha in the same period
(Cohen 1998).
Many crops are highly sensitive to drought stress, while others require a fairly abundant supply
of water to grow well. Millions of years ago farmers discovered the advantages of applying
supplemental water to crops through irrigation, whether from rivers, lakes, underground aquifers,
or artificial tanks. With reliable water supplies, the risk of crop loss is radically reduced and the