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

growing population. Wetland protection policies must be structured in such a manner as to
encourage best practices, rather than simply stopping production.
To achieve this objective, it is important that local communities understand the classification of
their local wetland resources and the regulations applying to that classification, so that
appropriate local utilization policies can be enacted and enforced. Currently due to ambiguous
land laws, the “ownership” of wetlands remains a point of contention. Households living in the
vicinity of extensive wetlands clearly feel that they have traditional use rights and ownership
privileges related to the wetlands. This leads to severe problems of non-conforming use. The
formation of Common Land Associations to implement wetlands management schemes for the
benefit of the community at large needs to be actively piloted and the resulting lessons promoted
for broader implementation.
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.
Lack of access to appropriate irrigation technology and skills is another of the critical constraints
that needs to be broken. Because of the current low level of irrigation, Uganda is in the enviable
position of being able to learn from the rest of the world’s mistakes in forging its irrigation
policies. Large scale subsidized irrigation schemes have proven to be management intensive and
often uneconomical. They usually fail to create the right incentive to promote water control and
management, resulting in lowered water tables and salinity problems. There is tremendous
potential for adaptation of low-cost small-scale technologies perfected in Asia (treadle pumps
and drip irrigation systems), which are more environmentally friendly and economically suited
for the transition from subsistence to small-scale commercial production. However, it will not
happen without a degree of public investment. Commercially oriented distribution systems for
low cost technologies need to initially be facilitated and supported to
There is tremendous potential for adaptation of low-cost small-scale technologies perfected in
Asia (treadle pumps and drip irrigation systems), which are more environmentally friendly and
economically suited for the transition from subsistence to small-scale commercial production.
However, it will not happen without a degree of public investment. Commercially oriented
distribution systems for low cost technologies need to initially be facilitated and supported to
grow to an economically viable scale of operation, but once established, they can then achieve
financial sustainability. Favorable policies also need to be formulated that encourage the
adoption of such technologies and best practices. The current ban on cultivation within 100
meters of a major water body is unrealistic and makes small-scale irrigation too expensive to
serve the needs of the small producers who are potentially the most ecologically friendly water
users. Instead, pressures for expanded irrigated acreage need to be channeled in the right
direction by a combination of “push” and “pull” incentives. The “push” out of fragile and
unsuited environments can be achieved through appropriately formulated community controls on