Drake Rukondo, a development consultant displays the draft RIA report during the validation workshop
On April 13, 2016 a number of experts and practitioners convened to validate the regulatory impact assessment for the Draft National Fertilizer policy for Uganda.
The report presented by Drake Rukundo a development consultant, on behalf of Ministry of Agriculture warns that over the next decade Uganda’s soils will need much more investment to replenish due to high nutrient loss with little fertilizer application. “Uganda loses 80kg of soil nutrients per year and uses only 1-2kg of fertilizer per year per hectare,”reads the report.
As she opened the workshop, Dr. Sarah Ssewanyana, Executive Director of EPRC said the Ministry of Agriculture should not solely be blamed for failure to put in place a fertilizer policy. She called for a multi-sectoral approach that cuts across various ministries, if the fertilizer policy is to be approved and implemented. She further noted that if linkages between government ministries and agencies are still weak, it will take much longer for the policy to be effected.
Mathias Kasamba, the Chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries argued that reluctance on the side of stakeholders has delayed actualization of the fertilizer policy for six years. “It has taken us long since 2010 to have the fertilizer policy in place, it’s my prayer that the policy does not go beyond this financial year.” Kasamba said.
He disputed the belief that lack of resources was a major factor limiting approval of the national fertilizer policy. He called upon all interested parties to mount more pressure on the Cabinet and Ministry of Finance to approve and allocate finances for actualization of the policy.
Once passed, the policy will streamline and ease government’s oversight role, farmers will have access to quality fertilizers and the private sector will benefit from investments in manufacturing of fertilizers. In addition, if properly implemented, the National Fertilizer Policy will get Uganda at least 30kg of nutrients per hectare per annum by 2020. To realize this target there is need to create a fertilizer market development unit in the Ministry of Agriculture.
