World Bank pledges to link agriculture, manufacturing
World Bank Group country manager Christina Malmberg Calvo. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA
What you need to know:
Impact. The link will see agricutural productivity increase.
Kampala. World Bank Group country manager Christina Malmberg Calvo has said her institution is ready to help Uganda in linking agriculture to manufacturing.
According to Ms Calvo, the two economic sectors have the potential to turn around the country’s fortunes if operated concurrently rather than in isolation as it is the case currently.
Speaking in Kampala on Wednesday, Ms Calvo said the energy the population puts in agriculture compared to the returns got from it, does not add up.
She said: “About 75 per cent of Uganda’s population works in agriculture. But it is generating less than 25 per cent of GDP (total economic activity generated within the country); its growth is lower than the GDP average. Something is wrong here.”
She continued: “We need to do something about linking agriculture to the manufacturing sector. I welcome a conversation on this with the government, the private sector and development partners.”
With linking of the two economic sectors, Ms Calvo believes the agricultural sector will come alive because productivity will increase, processing and value addition will take shape and export will follow suit.
Ms Calvo also asked the government to deal with challenges such as in land administration, saying the time spent in registering and transferring property is laborious.
She said this can be solved by automation.
The agricultural sector is dominant in Uganda’s economy, contributing about 90 per cent of GDP while the manufacturing sector is relatively small contributing about 8.2 per cent
