Agriculture sustains this country so govt must give it more support

Because the farmer is highly cheated, middlemen are able to thrive. Shopkeepers everywhere report that they make more profit on a sack of food compared to a bag of sugar or a box of soap.

In her maiden 2011 budget as new Minister of Finance, Ms Maria Kiwanuka, came up with a (rather comical) hand-hoe idea for agriculture modernisation – scrapping import taxes on the hoe. Those with keen interest in the sector were outraged.

Our leaders and technocrats are all too aware about the agriculture sector’s importance and potential development ripple effect and never miss an opportunity to remind us. But for many years, they have continued to make paltry allocation to the sector and to haphazardly manage its programmes. Agriculture is in shambles. Government actions smack of neglect while the elite see agriculture as a last resort for career failures.

However, although neglected, farmers manage to produce food for the nation and are unwittingly subsidising the life of others. Because the farmer is cheated on the price of produce, the final consumer is able to get cheap food. The cost of food is critical to low income earners (especially in urban areas) because it constitutes the biggest cost of living. Cheap food means more savings (for other things). Although prices have increased over time, food is still very cheap in Uganda compared to neighbouring countries. Thus, although the country is facing hard times economically, at least people can cheaply get the most important basic necessity – food. Therefore, the farmer is subsidising the cost of living of other Ugandans.

Farmers are also ‘donating’ jobs to food trade middlemen. This middleman-ship is a whole sector of its own with about four levels: the village middlemen (with bicycles and weighing scales), those who take produce to towns and the wholesalers and retailers in towns. These are actually the fat cats of the agriculture sector. Because the farmer is highly cheated, middlemen are able to thrive. Shopkeepers everywhere report that they make more profit on a sack of food compared to a bag of sugar or a box of soap. Did you also notice that food items like rice are now also hawked on Kampala streets? Well, the hand hoe farmer is providing jobs for many people, a political subsidy on the government’s failure to create jobs.

And the bad roads. Because of the high cost of transport, farmers pay highly for this by accepting very low prices from the middleman to cover transport costs. Conversely, they pay highly for other goods, which come into their villages. This is the farmer’s subsidy on high transport costs or government’s failure to build good roads. There are other similar subsidies paid for by farmers from their meagre earnings, for example on poor health and education services, corruption and bad governance, etc.

We pride ourselves as a modern country – gauging by the iPads, high rise buildings, traffic jam (which supposedly indicates wealth and development, never mind the bad roads) – but relegate the sector that employs most people and feeds the nation to Stone Age.

It is in government’s interest to develop agriculture. Given it size, it has a huge potential for expansion of the tax base. If farmers are given meaningful support so that even half of the Ugandans employed in agriculture begin paying tax, there would be no need for groping around for noxious revenue solutions such as the proposed increment on the already-high fuel tax. As the 2013/2014 budget is being finalised, let’s remember the sector that sustains the nation. Vision 2040 will remain a mirage if we continue paying lip service to this economic fundamental.

Mr Mulabi is the coordinator, Community Development Programme, Uganda Czech Development Trust. mulavid@gmail.com