Presentation by Margaret Najjingo Mangheni, Makerere University (March 5, 2020). For more details, visit http://bit.ly/FutureAgExt

1. Analysis of Uganda’s agricultural development strategy context :
Implications for agricultural extension and advisory services
functions, opportunities and challenges
Dr Margaret Najjingo Mangheni,
Makerere University,
Kampala - Uganda
5th March, 2020

2. Background
Contextual information about Uganda’s agriculture
Map of Uganda with the 10 Agricultural Production Zones
✓ Diverse with 10 Agricultural
Production Zones (APZs).
✓ Contributing 24.21% of GDP*.
✓ Employs over 70% of total
population directly and
indirectly**.
✓ 69% are subsistence, 26%
emerging commercial farmers.
✓ 33% of children suffer from
malnutrition***
✓ Poverty level is 21.4% (Rural
contributes 89% of national
poverty)****
Source:
*H. Plecher, Jan 23, 2020
**https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/uganda/publication/ug-
uganda-developing-the-agri-food-system-for-inclusive-economic-growth
(World Bank, 2018)
***World Bank Poverty Assessment Report, 2016
****https://www.ubos.org/wp-
content/uploads/publications/05_2019STATISTICAL_ABSTRACT_2018.pdf
Facts about Uganda’s Agriculture

3. Background
National Agricultural Policy and NDP II
National Agricultural Policy (NAP, 2011)
Goal: “a Competitive, Profitable and Sustainable Agricultural Sector”
Mission: “transform subsistence farming to sustainable commercial agriculture”.
National Development Plan (NDP II, 2015 – 2020) Strategies:
✓ Agro-industrialization and export oriented growth through value addition, agro-
processing
✓ Employment creation through fast tracking skills development
✓ Strong Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs) for sustainable development
✓ Private sector led growth and a quasi-market approach
✓ Strengthening governance mechanisms and structures.
The Interventions focus on 12 priority commodities:
Bananas, beans, maize, rice, cassava, tea, coffee, fruits and vegetables, dairy, fish, livestock
(meat), and four strategic commodities, namely, cocoa, cotton, oil seeds, and oil palm

4. Background
Extension policy strategic direction
Two thrusts:
1. Transform extension from a system of parallel institutionally fragmented public and
non-state actors to a well-coordinated, harmonized, regulated pluralistic service
with multiple providers addressing diverse needs.
2. Address the needs for extension services along the entire value chain (as opposed to
the previous focus on mainly primary production) and synergistic integration with
other agricultural support services for optimum return on investment.

5. Extension
System
Structure of Extension System
NSAs e.g
private sector,
CSOs
Sub county
Level
Village Level
NSAs e.g
private sector,
CSOs, Lead
Farmers
Sub county Local
Government
NSAs e.g
private sector,
CSOs, academia,
NARS
National Level
Directorate of
Agriculture
Extension
Services
Other Directorates
(Livestock, crop and
Fisheries).
Respective agencies of the
MAAIF sub-sectors and
****Ministries
District Level
NSAs e.g
private sector,
CSOs
District Local
Governments
****Ministries include: Ministry of Lands and Urban
Development; Ministry of Water and Environment; Ministry
of Trade, Energy and Mineral Development, Ministry
Cooperatives and Marketing among others.

6. Preparation
creating country team &
ownership
Implementation
framing condition, country context,
clients’ perspective and system analysis
(structure, functions and enabling factors)
Consolidation
analysis and validation of the
results, action planning
FAO’s EAS Assessment Guide: Why and for whom?
Purpose:
… to guide and support actors, national
policy decision makers, investors to
develop and implement evidence-based
policies, programs and to better target
investments.
A multidimensional assessment
methodology to critically understand a
complex EAS system; including its diversity,
linkages among the actors, capacity,
approaches etc. using both qualitative and
quantitative methods.

7. Core principles
• Alignment with national goals and priorities for
agricultural sector and rural development;
• National leadership of the process to create trust
and ensure government and other stakeholders’
ownership of results;
• Involvement of relevant actors through multi-
stakeholder participatory processes
• Triangulation to capture different perspectives;

8. Key steps and timelines of the EAS assessment process
Training of NAT 10
(2M, 8W)
19 & 20th Sept,
2019
FGDs (38M, 46W)
KII + Organ.
Profiling
(13M, 13 W)
October, 2019
National Level
Wshop
(12M, 18W)
29th October, 2019
Data Analysis and
Synthesis
November, 2019
Valdation
Workshop
(16M, 10W)
12th December,
2019
Final synthesis
and Reporting
December, 2019 &
January 2020

9. Functions and Services for Primary Clients (farmers)
1. Advice and training on improved technologies (agronomy, livestock, processing,
value addition and marketing).
2. Linkages to services e.g veterinary services, profitable markets, financial services,
equipment hire services, transport services, agro input dealers and farm service
centres, multi stakeholder platforms with other value chain actors.
3. Reorganize and reorient farmers into commodity or enterprise-based farmer groups
e.g Facilitate establishment of farmer owned and sustainable institutions, link
farmer institutions with other players in the value chains, Build capacity in
governance and leadership of farmer groups.

10. Functions and Services for Primary Clients (farmers)
4. Business related skills: taxes, enterprise selection, financial literacy, record
keeping, digital literacy, negotiation of better terms of engagement with
other actors
5. Change in attitude / mind set change: from multiple to specialized
enterprises or commodities; from subsistence to commercial serious business
orientation
6. Regular information updates: on prices and market demand/ requirements,
sources of quality inputs and lists of banned chemicals.
7. Gender sensitization

11. Functions and Services Needed by Secondary Clients (e.g non state actors)
1. Coordination of EAS providers
✓ Advice on best location for equitable distribution of EAS
✓ Policy guidance
✓ Guidance on establishment of platforms for harmonized investments
✓ Coordinate and harmonize public subsidies with private sector
investments to exploit opportunities for synergies and
complementarities.

12. Functions and Services Needed by Secondary Clients (e.g non state actors,
research)
2. Capacity development at systems level:
✓ Assess capacity gaps of EAS providers (public and private)
✓ Build their capacity in priority areas
3. Facilitate establishment of functional multi actor platforms for coordination and
linkages at national and local government levels; Support platforms to be self-reliant.

13. Functions and Services Needed by Secondary Clients (e.g non state actors)
4. Monitoring and Quality assurance
✓ Profile, Register & Map EAS service providers in the country
✓ Establish quality assurance systems

14. Challenges
Key Challenges faced in the Extension System
✓ weak systems for supervision and monitoring of public EAS
✓ Lack of streamlined linkages between EAS and academia
✓ No legal framework to operationalize, coordinate and regulate service
providers under Extension policy NAEP 2016.
✓ No Statutory institutions to coordinate the pluralistic extension system
✓ Research not aligned with priority commodities & emerging enterprises
✓ Research agenda not responsive to the dynamic needs of rural
producers and private sector
✓ Research agenda does not incorporate the EAS approaches, markets
and competitiveness to drive agro industrialization
Funding
Research
Coordination &
Linkages
Others
Capacities
✓ Low government investment in EAS and research
✓ Inadequate alignment of government spending priorities with the
strategic direction.
✓ Funding input subsidies not balanced with funding advisory services
✓ Inadequate capacities in approaches that target youths and women.
✓ Limited capacities of EAS providers in ICT

15. Agriculture’s
strategic
contribution to
GDP which
makes EAS a
national
priority
Local
government
conditional
grants to
support
priority
strategic
commodity
value chains.
Investment in
climate smart
technologies at
national and
global levels
National
Agricultural
Extension
Policy 2016
recognizes the
pluralistic
extension
system.
Availability of
existing Public,
Private and
Producer
Partnerships (PPPs),
Public – Private,
Private – Private &
Private – Producer
Partnerships.
Goal:
Competitiveness &
commercialization
of agriculture to
drive agro
industrialization
ICT policies,
infrastructure,
mobile telephone
coverage,
television, radio
networks, internet
to support
agribusiness and
actor networks.
Opportunities in the Extension System

16. Challenges of assessments and potential solutions
Involving key national stakeholders from the very beginning
helps to build capacity of stakeholders to better understand the
methodology, better adapt it to the country context, and better
implement and make use of the assessment.
The assessment should not be a one-time exercise
but a regular one to inform interventions and
investments to strengthen EAS
Institutionalization of such assessment as a part of the Monitoring
and Evaluation mechanism of the EAS services and coordination
mechanisms would help generating regular evidence of EAS
performance and demonstration of return on investment.
Complexity of the pluralistic EAS system makes the
assessment quite a long, resource-intensive and
complex process.
Capacity required to carry out the assessment may
not be readily available
Initial training for the country team was helpful in building
capacity of the group. This could be scaled up to strengthen
country fora or national extension service system.