By Miria Kalule Obote
It was reported in New Vision, April 7, that President Museveni while on a tour of Busoga region had announced that six households from every parish would be given funds under a government programme to transform agriculture from subsistence to commercial.
Apparently, the six households would serve as a nucleus and learning centres. This is the latest policy position of the “visionary” and “revolutionary” NRM government in its pursuit of “prosperity for all (bonna bagaggagwale).
On which inertia will the choice of six families to benefit from this scheme be based? On the ground of paying more taxes, large family units or their support to NRM? Whatever the criteria for the choice, it will be discriminatory and will offend Article 21 of the constitution which states that all persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and are to enjoy equal protection of the law. The article prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.
So when government decides to choose some and not others to dole out money to, the government is breaking the constitution by being discriminatory. This is a scheme to create the middle class rather than allow it to evolve by creating conditions which would give equal opportunities to all Ugandans to have access to self improvement.
Like all ill-conceived NRM policies on “prosperity” this latest gamble is doomed to fail along the lines of the Rural Farmers Scheme, Entandikwa, Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture and other billions-worth of failed projects.
This scheme which will be implemented by the troubled and inefficient National Agricultural And Advisory Services (Naads) will be another waste of tax payer’s money. The six households will be selected on the basis of NRM patronage and no amount of subsidy to them will transform rural agriculture in Uganda from subsistence to commercial. The policy, if it can be called so without injury to the word, is ill-conceived.
The problems of agriculture in Uganda cannot be solved by amateurish gambling. The first step to take to deal with the macro and microeconomic management of Uganda of which agriculture is only a part, is the question of democratic governance. It is only under a democratic framework that sound and corruption free institutions can be set up and efficiently operate. Even if we had the best managers in NAADS, they cannot deliver if their operations are interfered with and controlled by corrupt politicians.
Secondly, improving farming methods of a few farmers without a coordinated improvement of the production, transport and marketing infrastructure, cannot solve the teething complex problems in rural areas. The NRM government is responsible for dismantling the cooperative movement and the marketing boards that were the backbone of organised production, marketing and transportation.
Millions of rural farmers cannot transform their farming methods without the dedicated and all year round support of agricultural extension works at every sub-county. In its craze to “reform” the civil service, the NRM retrenched thousands of agricultural extension workers. This left the farmers orphaned and deprived of expert support.
The agricultural research institutions like Kawanda, Namalere, Busitema and district farm institutes and demonstration farms that were at the forefront of research on improved and disease resistance crop varieties, animal varieties, handy agricultural equipments and machinery were also run down. Attempts to revive them under the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) have failed like all NRM projects.
Without this research capacity, the future of agricultural in Uganda is bleak.
The writer is the president of Uganda People's Congress (UPC)
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