OWC is Driving Agro-Industrialisation for Job Creation and Increased Household Incomes

By Gen (Rtd) Caleb Akandwanaho Salim Saleh

1. OWC operation is subdivided into 04 phases namely; phase 1- Initiation, phase 2- Stabilization, phase 3- Consolidation and phase 4- Hand over and exit. Each of the phases has its own tasks to be accomplished and outputs, targets and outcomes to be realized.
2. OWC continues to provide an oversight role through monitoring and ensuring effective coordination of service delivering of inputs and their progressive growth, as NAADS drives the procurement process. Generally, the agricultural sector has registered improved growth rates over the last four years, averaging 3.0 percent per annum. The performance across the prioritized commodities has been generally good with significant improvements observed in key strategic and food security commodities as indicated in Tables 1 and 2 below;

Table 1: Summary of production for selected crops, 2014-2018.

Source: MAAIF

Table 1 above shows the production trends for selected national priority/ strategic commodities between 2014 (base year) and 2018. It should be noted that there is an upward trend in the production of all priority commodities supported by the Government through NAADS.

Source: UBOS

Relatedly, table 2 above shows that the value of agriculture exports has steadily increased over the past 4 years resulting from the increased exports from the selected priority and strategic commodities.

3. It’s also worth noting that Operation Wealth Creation / National Agricultural Advisory Services during the F/Y 2019/ 2020 distributed several enterprises that covered about 725,000 households. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOs) 2012 / 13 National Household Survey Report, Uganda is estimated to be having 7,473 households, translating to about 10% national outreach during that period alone.
4. Distributed Enterprises:

Banana – 37,000, Coffee seedlings – 7,969,413, Beans – 201,300 kg, Onions -7969,413 kgs, Maize -312600 kgs, Chicken – 83000, Dairy cows – 374, Fish fingerling 67,594, and others include Cocoa, Tea, Sugarcane, Pineapple, Citrus, Mango, Rice, Cassava, Irish potatoes, Poultry farms, Beekeeping. About 725,000 households have accessed critical agricultural inputs such as seeds, seedlings, breeding and stocking materials, value addition, mechanization equipment and technologies that are essential for increasing production and productivity.

1. We as OWC, are continuing to sensitize farmers on the President’s one acre and four-acre model, though this is being undermined by land fragmentation.
2. Contextually, OWC has stimulated the birth of new regional strategic and grand initiatives such as Public Investment Management for Agro-industrialization (PIMA) and Presidential initiative on agro-industrialization for Local Economic Development. In order to consolidate the gains so far achieved in the agricultural commercialization drive, the government is laying emphasis on strengthening commodity value chains through agro-industrialization. According to the NDP III strategic direction, the agro-industrialization (AGI) program is the primary program to which the agricultural sector will contribute.
3. The following strategies have been identified as vehicles through which the agro- industrialization agenda will be implemented;
4. Supporting the establishment of Area Based Commodity Clusters (ABCC); this strategy is aimed at ensuring that the distribution of planting materials is focused on building sustainable value chains within the vicinity of the emerging grain and fruit processing facilities in line with the agro industrialization efforts.

In order to build strong commodity clusters, efforts will be made to organize farmers in groups at different levels to produce raw materials for the industries. This strategy is already being piloted this financial year specifically for the fruits value chains in selected districts and will be progressively rolled out in the medium to long term.

1. Supporting the establishment of Rural Farmer Service Centers (RFSCs) and logistic hubs to complement the Area Commodity Based Clusters. One of the challenges that farmers have been facing is the lack of access to quality farm inputs. The RFSCs will help to improve access to critical inputs by farmers especially seed, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals as well as other services such as tractor hire and financial services. The government and the private sector will jointly implement this intervention. The RFSC at Namunkekera Rural Industrial Centre in Kapeeka, Nakaseke district is a good learning experience on what is required to be done.

1. Purchase of specialized agro machinery and processing/value addition equipment to boost production and processing/value addition along the agricultural/commodity value chains. This intervention will further boost the efforts for agro industrialization in line with the theme “Industrialization for Job Creation and Shared Prosperity” of the Budget for FY 2019/20 and overall the agro industrialization agenda in the strategic direction of the NDPIII. These key strategic interventions will involve supporting the establishment of fruit processing facilities in strategic areas as well as the provision of agro machinery such as tractors to suitable farmer organizations.

6. Under the Agri –LED, the LED concept will address that 68 % of the targeted households who are not able to make an income on account of either fragmented pieces of land or lack of land completely. The Concept will also address those households who do not have an interest in agriculture to benefit from non-agricultural sectors such as; tourism, ICT, services sector, industry (Non -agriculture), oil and gas among others. The government initiatives will be aimed at localizing all development interventions with greater involvement of Local District Governments and   OWC will work closely with all multi-stakeholders to identify unfunded priorities,       investment opportunities to be developed into bankable investment proposals.
7. Conclusion

The on-going efforts towards the vision for the transformation of the agriculture sector from subsistence farming to a productive, commercial, profitable, competitive and sustainable sector, as envisioned in the current agro-industrialization strategy require close and concerted collaboration and engagement of all stakeholders at national, local government and community level. All stakeholders are called upon to embrace these strategies in order to achieve the country’s vision of transformation.

Gen Caleb Akandwanaho Salim Saleh (Rtd) is the Chief Coordinator – Operation Wealth Creation