Women demand for reforms in the agricultural extension services

Government might have set out to help rural famers in various schemes, but there is a lot still wanting. In a National Dialogue organized by the Civil Society Budget Group and Forum for Women in Democracy at Hotel Africana on Tuesday 8 October, farmers expressed their dissatisfaction on the way the NAADs and extension services were being carried out. 

The dialogue that drew local women farmers from Amuru, Amuria, Napak, Iganga Masaka, Luwero, Mukono and other districts was organized under Farm Power 2013 with the theme “Financing Inclusive extension services in Uganda.” Sophie Kyagulanyi the Program Manager from Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) in her opening remarks called for integration of the traditional extension service system with the existing extension services in NAADs and urged civil society organizations to effectively engage in the ongoing reforms of the extension service systems by ministry of agriculture.

In her presentation on the status of financing extension services in Uganda, Sophie Nampewo, a Research officer at ACODE stated that only 14% of farmers receive extension services annually despite the fact that NAADS in the entire agriculture sector budget receives more funding compared to other sub sectors. In the national budget for FY 2013/14 for example, the NAADS Secretariat has been allocated Ushs52.118bn, amounting to 13.2% of the agricultural sector budget. She noted that although Phase II of NAADS program focuses on providing advisory services its major challenges was that beneficiaries are not selected following the NAADS guidelines. In her assessment, the selection of farmers in NAADS is quite selective as they tend to be friends or relatives to NAADS officers and political party supporters among others. Worse still, access to extension services is slightly higher among men farmers when compared to women farmers mainly due to the set standards in the NAADS guidelines and as one farmer stated.  “In my district we select the active poor who have the ability to utilize the inputs like land; those who do own land rarely benefit”

The major challenges faced by farmers who shared in this dialogue included weak linkages between farmers and research, high level of bureaucracy during provision of services and low responsiveness to farmer’s needs as testified by one Peninah Nabuce, a farmer from Napak who owns a bull says that it has been hard for her to maintain it. She says that she needs at least 20.000 to treat the bull, a figure she can hardly afford.

Delayed release of funds to the district also leads to delays in the lower local government (sub-county). At the time when funds reach the sub-county to procure farmer inputs, the season has changed. There was a concern that government was giving no attention to providing good market for the products which makes middle men amass wealth at the expense of farmers.  

Recommendations from this meeting included the need to integrate leadership in farmer capacity building programs.

Honorable Achia Terrence, the Member of Parliament for Bokoro County who prides in enhancing commercial farming in his constituency said that farmers should demonstrate because of government’s failure to have the irrigation scheme start off.

Honorable Lokeris proposed that agriculture training be vocationalized to allow enough knowledge be disseminated to specific types of farmers considering their abilities and location. A farmer from Mubende proposed to have a farmers’ representative in Parliament. He says that also the number of two farmer beneficiaries that is designated should be increased because this is being abused by the individual families who keep the services for themselves. 

Agnes Kirabo the coordinator Food Rights Alliance called for reallocation of funds within the agriculture budget to finance an inclusive extension services specifically to support women who are at the center of Uganda’s agriculture productivity. She said this will deal with the current situation where over 70% of NAADS funds stay at the secretariat and only 30% goes to support farmers.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Francis Byekwaso who represented Honorable Tress Bucyanayandi, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries called for integration of leadership in agriculture if the sector is to be transformed. He further mentioned there are ongoing reforms in the extension service system to ensure that rural farmers especially women gain increased production and productivity of their produce. He further informed farmers that with support from the Korean government, Government of Uganda has set up an institution on mind set change in Mpigi which trains on agriculture and leadership training centers. He concluded by urging CSO, government and farmers to join efforts in providing practical solutions to ensure farmers get inclusive extension services.