Agriculture in Uganda – Prime Time Communications

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch East Africa’s starving population calls for an agricultural paradigm shift

#OutToLunch East Africa’s starving population calls for an agricultural paradigm shift By Denis Jjuuko An eye-popping report in the East African, a regional newspaper caught my attention this week. It claimed that “some 50 million people in East Africa are hungry after two years of failed rains.” It further added that as people were starving, “Tanzanian maize exports are stuck at the border due to red tape. ”Yet there is nothing Africans claim to be good at and what gives them a comparative advantage than agriculture. If agriculture is our thing and we are so good at it, how can 3.5% of the continent’s population in just one region be starving to death due to lack of food because there is no rain? And also, like we saw last week, how can red tape at borders make it difficult for people to get food from a neighbouring country? If you drive through many parts of Uganda, you will see children with every symptom of malnutrition. On some of my travels in the countryside, I sometimes wonder what people actually eat. You can drive for many kilometres without seeing any garden anywhere. If you get off the main roads into the villages, you see a small garden here and there. You would think that if we can’t do agriculture at a commercial scale, at least let every home have a sizeable garden for their household needs. This was the case before. But Africa can’t continue to miserably fail at what they claim to be good at and instead resort to depending on organisations like the World Food Programme. A whole region like East Africa where we sing about political federation all the time can’t be lacking enough food to feed its citizens. East Africa is home to many water sources among which Lake Victoria and River Nile — two of the world’s biggest such water sources in the world. But if you drive a kilometer or two from the banks of River Nile, you see kids who haven’t had a proper meal in days. And in shops, you will see food imported from Egypt grown using the same water from River Nile. One of the reasons given for lack of food on the continent is usually drought due to poor rainfall. But where water is so near people, there aren’t any plans to use irrigation to water the plants in East Africa. Because of changes in the climate, droughts are increasingly going to be the norm rather than the exception. However, East Africa or Sub Saharan Africa for that matter isn’t the only region in the world facing climate changes. How come we can manage to import food from other regions which are also suffering from climate change? In 2019, Sub-Saharan Africa imported food worth a whopping USD43 billion and it is estimated to reach USD100 billion by 2030. This is a worrying trend for a region that looks at itself as an agricultural one that raises fundamental questions. Why can’t we be food exporters instead of importers? How come regions with equally severe weather patterns able to export food to Sub Saharan Africa? What is it that we are doing wrong? We are told that if you do the same thing over and over again with the same results, then there is need to change. One of such things that we need to wean ourselves off is rainfed agriculture and adopt technologies that can make us food secure. More harsh weather resistant food varieties must be developed and adopted by communities. Adoption of modern and affordable irrigation systems is important too. Talking about agriculture in fancy hotels while eating imported wheat flour and vegetables is something African policy makers must cease doing and get to the ground and help their populations adopt modern farming techniques. Villages can be organized in a way that they farm what they are good at using varieties that resistant to weather conditions but also by adopting better irrigation technologies. Post-harvest losses must also be avoided. In many parts of Africa, we can’t even preserve what we grow. In countries like Uganda, you find that during certain seasons, fruits and vegetables are so many that farmers are giving them away for free and yet within a month, there is so much scarcity for the same stuff. What is so difficult in creating a warehouse with enough coolers to keep vegetables for a few more weeks? What is so difficult in starting a tomato paste plant in a region known for growing tomatoes? Instead if you visit our supermarkets, they are full of imported tomato paste from outside Africa. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 9, 2022

News

#OutToLunch Business bet: Grow food within 120km of Kampala

By Denis Jjuuko Last week we argued that most parts of greater Kampala will be urban in 30 years. Before that, Kampala’s population is estimated to grow to approximately 7.5 million people in the next 10 years according to the World Population Review. Urbanization means that they will be less land devoted to agriculture within Kampala’s 40km radius. Yet people still need food. Africa imports food worth approximately US$35 billion a year according to the African Development Bank and is estimated to grow to more than US$100 billion in the next 10 years. This is a result of “population growth, low and stagnating agricultural productivity, policy distortions, weak institutions and poor infrastructure,” says a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a United Nations agency. Many of African dollar or even shilling billionaires are involved in food. In Uganda, we even import cabbages, onions and such other things! Yet our land is so fertile and the climate still favours agriculture. Uganda has a water body almost everywhere and even if you are to sink a borehole, the water isn’t that deep in most parts of the country. As Kampala expands and its population grows, there will be more demand for food than ever. The government is pushing industrialization as one of the ways to create the elusive jobs. With the internet and advancements in technology, many non-traditional jobs will be created leaving many youths working outside the agriculture sector. As Kampala expands, some people will become middle class. The middle class will demand more organic foods. They also don’t work in the gardens. Over the last few decades, many people have abandoned agriculture preferring to look for jobs in urban areas. The declaration that now some towns are cities will also lead to more people migrating to urban areas in search of jobs. At the end of the day, they will need food. There is a news video circulating online that the price of Matooke, the staple food in many parts of Uganda especially the populous central region has significantly gone down over the last few months. This has been largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the market and generally demand for food is enormous in central Uganda given the way Uganda’s economy is structured and the level of urbanization. One way farmers can cut costs and increase their incomes is by growing food that is needed in a particular market. If, for example, you grow a particular food crop where the market isn’t available it becomes expensive to transport it to the market. Let us take an example of Matooke. If you grow Matooke in western Uganda, the transport costs are enormous to bring it to Kampala where the market is. This means that the farmer will get less as the traders have to factor in the cost of transport. In the news video I referred to above, the farmers in Isingiro say the price of a bunch of Matooke is now between Shs500 and Shs3,000 instead of Shs15,000 on average they were being paid recently. In Kampala, a bunch of Matooke costs between Shs5,000 and Shs15,000 today from about Shs12,000 to Shs30,000 a few months ago. This means that most of the money the farmer could get is now taken by the transport man. With increments in taxes levied on fuel, the farmer will get much less. As you know, our value addition on Matooke is still in its infancy even though there is a factory that is being set up to make flour among other products. So the best bet for a farmer now to increase their profit is to grow food within a radius of about 120km from Kampala. This will cut down the cost of transport significantly and avoid price fluctuations that result in flooding the market. When a farmer is far away from the market, they may not be able to predict the market as they need much more time to bring the product to Kampala. A farmer within 120km of Kampala can easily monitor the market in Kampala and decide whether to bring the Matooke to the market or not since the delivery period is short. In two hours, a farmer can have his Matooke on the market if the plantation is within a radius of 120km. This calls for zoning the country so that farmers whose products are perishable like Matooke grow it near their biggest markets. Produce with a long shelf life can be grown anywhere even though the transport challenges would remain. So for those who are looking for post-COVID-19 business opportunities, growing food within a radius of 120km from Kampala is a smart bet. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

July 9, 2020