Uganda aloof to fund soil fertility, exposed population to food insecurity – scientists 

Efforts to guard Uganda against looming food insecurity are held back by government’s failure to encourage and sensitize farmers on what specific fertilizer types to use in order to rejuvenate the increasingly less fruitful soils. Scientists warn that despite availability of some improved seed varieties, soils in the landlocked East African country can no longer produce food sustainably to feed a rapidly growing population.

 

Fertile soils ensure healthy crops  Photo:Courtesy

“Ugandan soils are too exhausted to produce food sustainably,” says frustrated Makerere University soil researcher Professor Mateete Bekunda.

 

“Government is not doing enough to develop soil fertility recommendations to encourage and sensitize farmers on what specific fertilizer types to use in order to rejuvenate the soils,” Bekunda charged.

 

Citing various studies over the past decade, Professor Bekunda laments that seeds planted by average farmers - majority at subsistence level and using traditional methods - today yields less than a third of its full potential.

 

“The largely peasant farming population here are dependent on re-planting seeds harvested from one season to the next even though some can hardly germinate. Many small holder households  are thus no longer able to meet even their basic own food needs due to increasingly dwindling yields,” Prof. Bekunda explains.

 

40 year old recommendations ignored

 

Professor Bekunda reveals that existing soils recommendations are over 40 years old, saying “This can’t apply now, especially with new challenges from global warming.”

 

Asked why government is cold to implement recommendations presented by scientists, Agriculture Minister Aggrey Bagine, says: “while researchers may be churning out good material, the technologies they have developed are not being disseminated down to the farmers to enhance productivity.”

 

“Many institutions under the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) are developing solutions to the problems,” Bagiire, adds while dismissing the accusations.

 

The World Bank in recent study attests to the fact that Uganda has a high return of Shs7 for every shilling invested in the agricultural sector. “…  with the multi-donor funding and relatively favorable weather, things should be looking up,” the bank confirms.

 

Recent local media reports cite many more frustrated researchers saying there aren’t enough resources to address all the issues, even when they need urgent attention. Dr Robert Kajobe, a tropical bees expert in the country’s eastern district of Tororo argues that entire research infrastructure needs to be modernized first with equipment fit for the task.

 

“I was only able to undertake the first internationally recognised local bees’ research and testing in London because most of the Ugandan laboratories are not properly equipped,” The Independent Daily Monitor quoted Dr. Kajobe as lamenting.

 

“Whether it is a question of resource limitations or collapsing research infrastructure, it is clear that most of available new technologies, especially in the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sector are facing immense challenges.

 

“Numerous other already existing pests and diseases have also gained more strength to cause more havoc to Uganda’s agricultural sector.

 

“It cuts across the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors – all whose potential is being held back,” Dr Kajobe is quoted as saying recently.

 

Army, Politicians stifle research

 

Seemingly untouchable war veterans and politicians are reported to be failing efforts by agricultural scientists to confront the numerous challenges since illegally occupying chunks of land at a government funded research center.

 

“At the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) in Kawanda - where a big chunk of the land on which crop testing was done - has been turned into an open market by bush war veterans,” Daily Monitor reported, adding, “Some unnamed senior politicians are plotting dump earth in the nearby wetland with the intention of reclaiming it..”

 

Once a shinning jewel with well tended crops, today bushes and thickets have overgrown most of the research gardens at Kawanda.At the main gate a warning has been pasted warning visitors/farmers to beware of conmen selling fake seeds inside the institute.It should be troubling that fake seeds are being sold inside the home of Uganda Seed Certification Centre that is housed inside the Kawanda complex.

 

Poorly attended research gardens and silent laboratories are now the norm at this place. It’s only the biotechnology lab that shows some signs of activity going on inside.Today, abandoned machines and tractors lie about the grounds. The same sad story is repeated in other research institutes on the country sides in  Tororo, Serere, Kituuza and Namulonge research stations, the paper adds.

 

Farmers demand for fertilizers

 

Organic farmers in Uganda want the government to develop soil fertilizer-use recommendations as a means to boost organic agro-based productivity. Mr Moses Muwanga, the Chief Executive of National Organic Movement of Uganda backs the framers demands saying, “Formal agricultural research policy and mechanisms do not support organic farming research.”

 

 He said: “Uganda’s research institutions are based on conventional research, which only use chemical fertilizers in the farming systems.”

 

Muwanga hastened to add that over 80 per cent of the farmers for whom the technologies are being developed are organic farmers who cannot afford fertilsers.

 

Soil fertilizer recommendations are scientific guidelines on use of specific types and amounts of fertilizers, whether organic or chemical in a given agro ecological zone and soil texture.

 

In a recent meeting of over 250 African and international organic farmers and promoters, the first ever on the continent, the delegates said that Africa needs a policy framework for the promotion of organic farming. Prof. Mateete Bekunda of Makerere University and Prof Pedro Sanchez, the head of the project are harmonizing past recommendations, which have not been revived in the last 40 years. Their meeting was intended to devise means of how Africa can benefit from organic farming and biotechnology.

 

Agriculture sector recent performance

 

In 2008/09, agriculture – cash and food crops, livestock, forestry and fishing – grew by 2.6 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent the previous year. The contribution of agriculture to Gross Domestic Product last year grew to 15.1 per cent far less compared to a performance of Services at 51.2 per cent. Industry and Construction grew by 3.8 per cent and Services by 9.4 per cent. Last year, adequate rainfall, the return of peace in northern Uganda and high market prices prompted growth in agriculture.

 

It is however obvious that despite the potential of growth in the sector, it suffers from political neglect and therefore shunned by potential supportive services like banks and insurance companies. Commercial banks, for instance, argue that they cannot lend cheaply to farmers because of the potent risk in agriculture relative to other sectors. 

 

The banks with average of 22 percent of interest rates have varied facades of salary-based loans but never agricultural credit because of the unpredictability of the farming process that largely depends on natural factors like rainfall.

 

By Samson Ntale

Ugandan based journalist