Uganda’s spending on agriculture has continued to dip despite the sector being a key pillar of the economy, a report has found.
Between 2006/07 and 2012/13, government spending on agriculture declined by 15 per cent, the report, titled Analysis of public expenditures in support of food and agriculture in Uganda, 2006/07-2012/13, notes.
The report comes at a time when government is proposing to further cut the allocation to the agriculture sector in the 2015/16 financial year. According to the National Budget Framework Paper for 2015/16, government will cut allocations by almost 12 per cent to Shs 417bn. The sector received Shs 473.7bn in the 2014/15 budget.
“Over time, government has reduced commitment to increase spending in agriculture as approved budget allocations to the sector are more or less stagnant and actual spending is declining,” noted the report by the Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies programme (MAFAP), which is implemented by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The study analysed specific agriculture spending, which looked at money allocated directly to the ministry of Agriculture in support of the food and agriculture sector development. This has averaged around Shs 400bn annually.
SUPPORTIVE SPENDING
It also looked at supportive spending – that is money allocated to other government ministries and departments and spent on areas such as feeder roads and health centres, which indirectly support agriculture. Agriculture-specific expenditures, on average, account for 39 per cent of the total budget, while agriculture-supportive expenditures account for 61 per cent.
The report covers budgeted and actual expenditures for all projects and programmes in support of food and agriculture for the period 2006/07 – 2012/13. They include capital and recurrent public expenditures at project and programme level. Both central and decentralised expenditures were considered.
There is a reasonable discrepancy in growth in the national budget allocation compared to growth in budget allocation towards agriculture, the report says.
“It is unlikely that under such spending circumstances, the agricultural sector will transform from a predominantly subsistence sector to a commercial sector,” the report notes.
In 2003, the Maputo declaration recommended a 10 per cent annual spending on agriculture. Uganda is yet to meet that. In the period analysed, the bigger percentage of spending went to extension and subsidies, with both categories maintaining an average of 45 per cent.
Yet, not much has been achieved under these categories. Last year, President Museveni ordered for the overhaul of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), which falls under extension services, after it emerged that the programme had not generated the expected results despite the billions of shillings sunk into it.
The army has since taken over NAADS.
“The sector’s growth rate has been rather disappointing, fluctuating between 0.8 per cent and 2.9 per cent in the same period,” said the report, describing the sector as “painting a discouraging picture”.
The 2015/16 framework paper says government will restructure extension services this financial year. The main area of focus will be the recruitment of district/sub-county production staff/extension workers, the framework paper says. Isaac Shinyekwa, one of the researchers of the study, told The Observer that limited spending on the sector had curtailed its growth.
“The sector remains majorly rain-fed. Can we invest and expand the irrigation schemes?” Shinyekwa said.
“Look at the inputs side; there is absolutely no quality control, which means farmers plant whatever they find. And how many Ugandans use fertilizers? Let government invest in such areas.”
In Kenya, an average of 32kg of fertilizers is applied per hectare, according to the 2013 Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) report. Uganda only applied 27kg per hectare.
The share of agriculture to Uganda’s total GDP has declined over the years from more than 50 per cent in early 2000s to 23.7 per cent in 2012/13.
The irony with these numbers, however, is that while the share of the sector to GDP declined, which could partly mean that more people are moving away from agriculture to advanced sectors such as services and industry, some 67 per cent of Ugandans are stuck in agriculture, practicing mostly subsistence farming.
Full Article: https://www.observer.ug/business/38-business/37217-agriculture-budget-drops