Given the huge connectivity between the productivity and the country’s currency that is normally tagged on the dollar, farm produce remains low which has led to low export earnings. The Executive Director Upland Rice Millers Ltd Phillip Idro argued that some Ugandan farmers had not embraced modern farming practices that would boost production. These mainly produce on a smaller scale which affects the country’s export volume. “There hasn’t been much deliberate understanding beyond the technicalities of growing crops or manning animals. And I say this because the lifestyle of Agriculture requires increased productivity per square meter of land.” Said the Executive Director, Phillip Idro.
It also affected Uganda’s trade balance which continued to widen as of December 2016. The import bill stood at 21.5 trillion shillings well as the export earnings were only 10 trillion shillings. Idro blamed this gap on some Ugandans who only consider money as the only factor of production forgetting women in the production chain. “Hence most people look at money, seeds, and equipment as a factor of production, this is not true. In Uganda, the factor of production is the woman. So until the woman who is the engine of agriculture has her problems addressed. There would be no capacity however how much money you put to increase production in Agriculture.”
But even with this increased production, Uganda’s agricultural produce has a low bargaining power on the international market due to poor quality. Apart from traditional crops like coffee and cotton. Uganda’s export earnings are mainly coming from vegetables and fruits. “The problem only comes when others are not able to know your standards are. And as long as this is not clear, they will not buy from you because of your standards. So, there is the need for classification of commodities and milk products so that people know what the standards are and then you can export to America, Europe, to Asia and even within the region.”
Jane Baita Nunga the Chairperson of Nambale Agribusiness Cooperative in Busoga blames the competitiveness of Uganda’s produce on middlemen who she says influence farmers to harvest immature produce. “They don’t allow farmers to properly dry the harvested maize up to the expected quality.” These and several other challenges have subjected majority of the Ugandans to subsistence production with no surplus for market thus subjecting them to poor living conditions.
