Why OWC let down many farmers
President Museveni commissioned the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) Programme replacing National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads) with the aim of bring about social and economic transformation among households.
This was done with an aim of transforming Ugandans into a middle income status by 2020.
Under OWC, farmers receive inputs ranging from heifers, goats, piglets, seedlings, etc. The idea of creating OWC was a good one and I think if it is effectively implemented, our people will graduated from poverty. OWC could have failed to meet its objective of increasing household incomes due to a number of reasons.
These include late deliveries of supplies, wrong supplies, poor quality seedlings, poor selection of beneficiaries and small quantities.
Late deliveries means that seedlings are delivered to the farmers late into the season, leading to wastage. Wrong supplies is where farmers are given wrong items like apples when the soils can’t support the growth of this crop. In the last financial year, government lost billions of money when it delivered apples and mangoes and farmers ended up not planting either of them. Some times beans and maize supplied under OWC fail to germinate. Poor quality equipment has been the concern of nearly all farmers in the country.
According to OWC principles, people must apply for the inputs they want. At times farmers get inputs they have not applied for and those who apply do not get what they applied for.
This greatly affects their farming programme. Besides, the quantity of inputs government distributes to farmers are limited. For example, an entire district of more than 180,000 people can get only 20 heifers in a financial year. This number is very insignificant to transform people’s lives.
Before Naads/OWC, government had come up with a number of interventions all aimed at improving lives of Ugandans. These include Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) and Entandikwa Scheme, among others.
The national coordinator of OWC, Gen Salim Saleh, went to the Rwenzori region and found that the programme has not transformed the lives of Ugandans. His concern is to see that the lives of the 68 per cent of people who are still living in poverty are uplifted. So, in order to make the programme beneficial to farmers, Gen Saleh is coming with the idea of financing other than funding. It is a good suggestion because it will mitigate the challenges OWC is facing.
Under financing, farmers will get inputs of their choice and pay with their own money and after an agreed period of time, they can get paid. Another suggestion is co-funding where government will contribute 50 per cent of the total cost of, for example, a heifer and the beneficiary will also pay 50 per cent.
The interventions will increase ownership and productivity. The problem of late deliveries will also be addressed given that farmers can go to selected suppliers and get inputs of their own choice at their own convenience. Willing farmers will apply and get vouchers hence addressing the challenges of poor selection of beneficiaries and low quantity.
The idea of financing will also address the issue of limited inputs as many suppliers will be ready to supply the intended beneficiaries.
James Ategeka,
Bunyangabu
