UGANDA’S AGRICULTURE AT CROSSROADS, UFAAS Aannual workshop oct 2014

UGANDA’S AGRICULTURE AT CROSSROADS:
CRITICAL ISSUES IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
SERVICES
National annual stakeholders’ Workshop at
Grand Imperial Hotel, Kampala
29-30th October 2014
By Dr Margaret Najjingo Mangheni
Associate Prof. Makerere Univ/Chairperson
UFAAS
Uganda Forum for agricultural Advisory Services
Website: www.networking.afaas-africa.org

• The role of agricultural extension
in agricultural transformation
• Ongoing reforms in agricultural
extension in Uganda
• Critical issues in Uganda’s Agric
extension system
• Recommendations
Website: www.ufaas-ugandacf.org

Uganda cannot significantly reduce
poverty, increase per capita
incomes, and transform into a
modern economy without serious
focused attention on
agricultural development.

Uganda’s agriculture facing challenges:
• Funding—low funding (about 3% of the
budget)
• High population growth
• Climate change and declining soil fertility
• Poor agric markets
• Poor, uneducated, aging farmers
• Low application of scientific improved
technologies

• Human capital is the single most important
resource that Uganda has. The human
capital manages all other capitals.
• Uganda must invest in the over 70% of its
population deriving a livelihood from
agriculture
• This population needs Information,
knowledge, skills, technologies, institutions,
partnerships and networks, services.
• Agricultural extension services have a key
role in this. Uganda Forum for agricultural Advisory Services

However, currently agricultural extension
is accorded low value.
Policy makers and politicians are
prioritizing mere distribution on agricultural
inputs over and above development of
farmer capacity for innovation and
appropriate use of improved inputs and
other technologies.

(i) Disbanding of NAADS structure at
district and sub county levels and laying off
all staff
(ii) Transfer of the NAADS extension
functions to an Extension Directorate of
MAAIF at national level and to the local
governments to eliminate the old parallel
extension systems

(iii) Changing the mandate of NAADS secretariat
to procurement of inputs and value addition
equipment to support strategic interventions in
agriculture such as seedlings and breeding
stock,
(iv) Deployment of army at constituency level to
distribute agricultural inputs, monitor and ensure
that government interventions reach the
beneficiaries.

1. It is not clear how the key institutions will
relate to achieve the desired (i.e.
NAADS secretariat, Army, Operation
Wealth Creation, local governments,
Extension directorate).

There is piecemeal implementation as
opposed to an integrated service
delivery approach--While money has
been disbursed even during this
financial year to run NAADS
secretariat and Operation Wealth
Creation programs, other

We are concerned that Uganda is yet again
spending money on piecemeal interventions
when lessons from PMA are clear that holistic
interventions in all services essential for
agricultural transformation (advisory services,
research, inputs, value addition, market access,
microfinance) is essential for optimum returns
on investment.

2. Legal framework—NAADS mandate
changed without changing the NAADS Act
2001
No official strategy document and
operational guidelines have been
published. Approaches, strategies, roles
and implementation guidelines are not
clear.

3. NAADS secretariat has been retained with a
new mandate. However, implementation related
issues that led to failure of the old NAADS have
not been deliberately addressed, e.g:
(i) Institutional conflicts between NAADS and
MAAIF which undermined harmonized action
(disparity in funding levels)

The Executive Director NAADS earns a
monthly salary of 15 million while the new
Director of Extension will earn 2.4 million.
This wide disparity which was a source of
conflict and demotivation for staff of MAAIF
and local governments has been maintained.

(ii) Farmer institution development approach
which did not yield strong autonomous farmer
organizations with capacity to perform their
assigned roles
(iii) Piecemeal interventions as opposed to an
integrated holistic service delivery approach
(iv) Capacity development particularly of the
private sector.

4.Staffing and capacity issues:
(i)NAADS staff laid off without clear plans and a
budget to recruit extension staff for the local
governments. The whole budget for NAADS is
now spent at the centre to procure strategic
inputs.
(ii)Key functions like technical advice for
farmers, disease control are unfunded.
(iii)Districts have very few or no extension staff.

14 out 112 districts had no extension staff as at
1st March 2013:
Agago, Alebtong, Amudat, Bududa, Buhweju,
Butambala, Kalungu,Kiryandongo, Kyankwanzi,
Namayingo, Otuke, Rubirizi, Serere, Zombo
A vast majority of sub-counties have not even
one extension staff.

SSuubb--ccoouunnttyy lleevveell (excluding Fisheries, Ass.
Fisheries Officers, Entomologists & Asst. Entomologists)

5. There is no arrangement to manage
the assets that belonged to NAADS
(e.g vehicles and motor cycles). Many
of these are grounded and for a few
that are working, there is no proper
guidelines and resources for on their
management.

6. The approach of government giving farmers
input handouts is neither feasible nor
sustainable—
•It creates a dependency syndrome among
farmers
•It is too costly
•Absence of a transparent equitable distribution
system

• The mass distribution of inputs without
addressing the country’s capacity of seed and
stock production will not solve but rather
escalate the problem of fake inputs.
• The uncontrolled distribution of inputs might
result into negative repercussions to the long
term work of NARO concerning pests and
disease control.

7. During the whole process of the reforms the
farmers were not consulted. The role and
place of the farmer institutions and organs is
not yet clear.
8.The sudden laying off of the professional
extension workers has served as a de
motivation to staff who had a commitment to
serve the sector. What is the fate of the
professionals in the whole arrangement?

9. The role of the army:
(i)Their role not clear--Although the official
position is that they monitor the work of NAADS
in the distribution of inputs, some project leaders
say they are to implement along the whole value
chain
(ii)The official position is not realistic since there
is no frontline extension staff to implement. This
implies that the army will have to distribute the
inputs itself.

(iii) Army has insufficient capacity to perform any
of these roles. They are distributing inputs
without any technical support from qualified
agricultural extension staff.
(iv) Operation Wealth Creation rather than
MAAIF seems to be directing the army
involvement in agricultural service delivery. We
are concerned that OWC does not have the
required technical expertise to direct this effort

(v) The approach used to select input
beneficiaries and monitor the processes is not
clear.
Which farmers have access and which ones
don’t?
Are farmers empowered to give feedback to the
army and hold them accountable?

10. It is not clear when the Directorate of
Extension under MAAIF will be operationalized.
In the meantime, the extension function has no
leadership and direction.
Agricultural extension is at crossroads or indeed
in a crisis with serious negative implications for
Uganda’s agriculture.

1. The new agricultural extension approach
should be spelt out by MAAIF with clear
implementation manuals where the actors
and their roles are well explained, required
capacities are determined, after which
capacity development can be undertaken in a
holistic manner targeting all actors.
2. Deployment of the army should be preceded
by adequate training and issuing of
guidelines by MAAIF.

3. Government should equitably facilitate all the
different actors/arms of government to perform
their envisaged roles in the reform and to
promote a team approach.
Sufficient numbers of extension staff should be
employed and they should be equally facilitated
and retooled, oriented to the new
approach/roles.

4. The mechanism through which the farmers
will be supported to organize so as to demand
for services, give feedback on the performance
and quality of services, undertake collective
marketing among others should be clearly
streamlined.

5. The ministry (MAAIF) should come up
with a concrete roadmap for key actions
that will guide:
–The repealing of the NAADS Act,
–The operationalization of the extension
directorate,
–The recruitment of sufficient number
motivated, efficient and result-oriented
extension workers

–The inputs delivery and distribution
mechanisms.
–The continued functionality of farmer
institutions and organs
–The utilization of the remaining NAADS
facilities and equipment at the district
and sub county levels

•The reforms are reversing any gains of the past
without adding any significant value. In the
current form, they are largely disruptive. They
don’t provide remedies to the root causes of the
problems they seek to solve.
•The glaring vacuum left by the reform shows
that government was not adequately prepared
for it.
It is business worse than usual.

For the reforms to succeed, the fundamentals will have
to be addressed, namely:
(i)Sufficient qualified technical personnel at all levels;
(ii)Optimal budget with sufficient operational funds at
field level;
(iii)Operationalization of well coordinated
complementary services to extension as envisaged
under PMA (notably agro input supply, marketing, agro
processing and value addition, research).

• The disjointed institutional
arrangements being proposed may
not offer the much needed
coordination and coherence.
• We need professional standards,
ethics, and an agricultural extension
policy to guide the sub-sector.

Thank you for your attention

UGANDA’S AGRICULTURE AT CROSSROADS, UFAAS Aannual workshop oct 2014

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