For the past ten years, I have been on a learning journey – for the large part dedicated to farming and agricultural systems in Uganda, Indonesia, Peru, South Africa, Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Kenya, Burundi and recently Rwanda. Of course, I was born and raised in a farmer household and with no sense of finality, I tend to think that this naturalized me into farmers’ daily realities. I cherish the role of Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE), Empowering Small Holder Farmers in Markets (ESFIM), Agency for Transformation  and the Knowledge Program (KP) under the rubric of Hivos and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) that made my learning journeys and farmers’ fireplace conversations exciting and possible. 

Central, to these journeys was a search for answers to monumental challenges faced by millions of farmer households in Uganda, and also the sober belief that probable negative demise of Africa as we know it will begin with food, food and food. Some questions that I grappled with, for which I invite readers to reflect on include; Is farming in Uganda rewarding? What has been the role of officialdom in shaping the architecture of agriculture sector in Uganda? Will the agriculture sector provide the much needed jobs for Uganda’s huge and expanding population? Why is it that even when global and local urban prices of food are riding high, small holder farmers in the countryside are not pocketing the windfall? Why is subsistence (key for household food and nutrition security) on the decline?

Forgive my rather sweeping generalizations at this point –I wanted to really attempt to capture the pulse of the farmer in my Nyeibingo village in Rukungiri district who remains struggling to get-by. Of course official public policy documents and action strategies at national, regional and international level present millions of suggestions that seem not to be delivering from and through the eye of a farmer in Nyeibingo Village.

There are indeed many explanations to the above questions that exceed the scope of this lamentation. There are also supply and demand forces that are serious and diverse and myriad solutions that sound captivating, e.g. Bill Gates in his 2012 letter suggests that “We can be more innovative about delivering solutions that already exist to the farmers who need them...Knowledge about managing soil and tools like drip irrigation can help poor farmers grow more food today.”

My friend Jean Kahwa, a young fish farmer in Uganda, argues that Government makes it a policy to compel schools to give millions of school going children a liter of milk each per day- as this will guarantee instant local market for local dairy farmers and equally stimulate milk supply across the Country. And whether government pays for it or parents pay for it, matters less. Why are we not taking Kahwa’s and Bill’s advice?

For now I will attempt to articulate my experiential insights on the aspect of market governance. I will return to the other questions with possibly more concreteness. The reason farmers are not harvesting the price dividend is two-fold;

a) Costs of farm production/ productivity are increasing at a higher rate than what the local markets, regional and even global markets can offer. Of course there is no farmer capacity for cost benefit analysis, necessary to project margins across the farmers’ fraternity. I thought groups like Enterprise Uganda would be doing this.

b) The other explanation is weak farmer agency at individual and collective level. With limited access to ferment of information, farmers have limited capacity and stamina to make independent choices and decisions around efficient production and governance of markets; the solution will largely depend on how information technology will be harnessed by farmers and having in place strong producer organizations to negotiate farmer interests. But C is the most important.

c) There is a storm in Uganda’s governance of the agriculture sector that calls for urgent consensus of all political, technocratic and farming forces.  You see, the agricultural policy in Uganda is a broken brick – with no clear and pointed governance locus. Policy documents are as numerous as institutions that run them- whose mandates clash and are mostly engaged in out maneuvering each other.

When ‘elephants fight, it is the ‘grass’ that suffers. The story of ‘grass’- is the story of farmers in Uganda. Discord in policy formulation, implementation and monitoring have left farmers at the margins striving to find affordable and authentic inputs. Associations and cooperatives that are meant to moderate farmers – and through which farmers can exercise agency and organize to navigate officialdom are weak, uncoordinated and suffocating under the weight of elite capture. The question of agriculture governance must be resolved. Where should farmers go for services? National Agricultural Advisory Services? Uganda Coffee Development Authority? Cotton Development Authority? Dairy Development Authority? National Agricultural Research Organization, Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Ministry of Local Government, Prime Minister’s Office, Uganda Industrial Research Institute? Where is the one stop center?

Although the foregoing are important institutions with distinct mandates, they are too diverse, too scattered and seem to work independently with clashing mandates. MAAIF should recover the coordination role and show leadership. Where is the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries? Have you seen him? I hope this lamentation will call the Minister to order and initiate a broader discussion on the future of food and agriculture in Uganda, as the first line of comprehensive security- and prosperity. Remember, this is not a critique, a proposition or a throw in the towel diatribe – but rather a Lamentation influenced in part by the Biblical Jeremiah.

By Morrison Rwakakamba

The author is Chief Executive Officer- Agency for Transformation – a think and do tank on agriculture and environmental policy, based in Kmapala, Uganda.- www.agencyft.org