Although Uganda joined the rest of the World to celebrate World Food Day on October 16th 2018. Farmers in Uganda under their umbrella for Eastern and Southern Africa small scale farmers forum (ESAFF Uganda) are demanding government to subsidies Agricultural mechanization machines to make them affordable to small scale farmers.
ESAFF Uganda chairperson Hakim Baliraine said that the current market prices for some agricultural machines such as tractors are too expensive especially to the small holder farmers yet they are the majority stakeholders in the Agriculture sector.
“The cost of production is high because of using traditional rudimentary tools therefore government should come in to ensure that farmers can access modern farming tools such walking tractors, oxen ploughs and other machines this will lower the cost of production in the agricultural sector thus enhance agricultural production which will make Uganda food secure”. He said.
However senior Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture who spoke to Guide2uganda on conditions of anonymity said Government can only support farmers to acquire agricultural machines when they are in-groups.
“The challenge in the sector is that most farmers are operating at Individual basis which makes it very difficult to support such farmers let them form farming groups that is when government will respond easily to their plight” The source said.
Apart from the tractors, the government should also work on the issue of Women owning land, though majority of Ugandan Women are accessing lands for subsistence farming, they don’t have the right to own such resources which has also affected their participation in Agriculture sector meaningfully.
“The more Women have equal rights on land, Uganda’s Agricultural sector will grow at a high rate since Women contribute much in the sector but without having the rights to own lands, in some societies this will remain big hindrance to the transformation of the sector”. He added
Every year, on the 16th October, World Food Day is celebrated around the world to help raise awareness on issues concerning hunger, poverty and malnutrition, and to strengthen the political will to take action.
The focus of the day is that food is a basic and fundamental human right. Yet in a world of billions, 805 million people worldwide live with chronic hunger, 60% of women and almost 5 million children under the age of five die of malnutrition- related causes every day. Extreme hunger and malnutrition unavoidably create barrier to sustainable development, since many people become unproductive, more prone to diseases thus unable to improve their livelihoods,
This year’s theme of “A Zero hunger world by 2030 is possible” is derived from pillar 2 of the sustainable development goals of ‘Zero hunger” which aims at ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. The main target to reach this goal is to increase the agricultural productivity and the incomes of small scale food producers in particular women and the grass root people
In order to achieve Zero Hunger World by 2030.Farmers demand government to respect International obligation which the Country ratified such as the Malabo declaration in which the African Heads of states agreed to allocate 10% of their National Budget to Agriculture sector. With an increment in the budget it will enhance the building of resilience to shocks, including adapting to the effects of climate change.
The mismatch in designing agricultural policies as well as lack of adequate funds for implementation of the agricultural sector policy strategies has made it very difficult to create food production systems that help maintain ecosystems and that can be able to adapt to climate change, drought, weather or any other disasters in farming communities.
Why more resources should be invested in the Agriculture sector?
Uganda as country has one of the fast growing population on the African continent, such a high population can cause hunger however, Uganda as a country has potential to produce sufficient food to meet its consumption needs and surplus to export to other countries but the main problem lays with inequality in access of the available resources especially the small scale farmers who are the major producers of food.
Beti Aguti the Policy and Advocacy Specialist at Caritas Uganda at the same event added by calling up on Government to ensure that farmers have access to cheap Irrigation technologies, she noted that over depending on rain water is becoming big challenge to farmers especially in the water stressed regions which will support farmers to grow more food for both domestic consumption and export.
On the Government’s decision of giving 100 Billion shillings to Uganda Grains council, small scale farmers urged government to recall the 100 billion allocated to buy off excess maize through Uganda Grain Council to be directly transferred to farmers through cooperatives or organized groups.
