Where is Busoga’s Shs11 billion?

The promise: In January 2005, President Museveni promised to give Busoga sub-region Shs11 billion over a five-year period to implement an agricultural zoning programme.

Mr Museveni made the promise as he traversed the country to “educate” Ugandans about the Bona Bagagawale (Prosperity for All) programme.

Under the arrangement, Busoga was to be sectioned into seven zones.

At least 1,000 farmers from each of the seven zones were to be trained and facilitated in line with government’s vision for socio-economic transformation, which seeks to modernise the economy. In essence, a departure from subsistence agriculture by ‘addressing structural bottlenecks to boosting agricultural production’.

Some of the activities that had been lined up under the programme included fish, dairy, beef and poultry farming, piggery, goat rearing and farming in bananas, coffee and horticulture and citrus fruit farming depending on suitability of climate.

Areas such as Namasagali Sub-county in Kamuli District and most of Buyende District, which have wide swathes of savanna grassland and have had long histories of cattle farming were to be supplied with animals, while district like Mayuge and parts of Jinja and Mayuge were to have been assisted to venture into fish farming through ponds and cage farming.

Farmers were also meant to be trained in the use of agricultural inputs and pesticides and post-harvest management.

The target was to ensure that every farmer in Busoga would within three years of commencement of the programme be able to earn at least Shs20 million per year.

Current State Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Mr Moses Kizige, who was then not yet in Cabinet, was named as coordinator of the project.
The money was meant to have started trickling into Busoga during the Financial Year 2005/2006 at the rate of Shs2.2 billion per year.

Status
Eleven years and several months after the promise was first made, the government has never released the money to the region and the agricultural zoning programme, which had also been designed as a pilot for a model that could have been replicated in other parts of the country, has never been implemented.

Mr Kizige, who was meant to be the lynchpin of the project, lost the Bugabula North parliamentary seat to Mr Gerald Menya during the March 2006 general elections and the programme was derailed. He has since regained the seat but the programme has not been reignited.

In any case, Mr Kizige is now the minister in charge of Karamoja affairs, another sub-region with its peculiar problems, meaning he can hardly follow up on the issues of Busoga. The President has not made any pronouncement on who would take up Mr Kizige’s assignment in case the programme was to proceed.

Currently, unemployment figures in Busoga remain high with 79.3 per cent of the population between 16 and 64 years unemployed, and another 8.9 per cent of the population between 18 and 30 years unemployed.

Busoga sub-region, according to the 2014 population census, has a population of 3,583, 196 people.

Impact:Failure of the programme, which was meant to spur growth in the agricultural sector and create opportunities to improve household incomes in Busoga, which accounts for nearly 10 per cent of the country’s population, has meant that agriculture has never been modernized.

Farmers continue to use rudimentary implements and suffer effects of plant and animal diseases, and invasions of pests.

Agricultural productivity remains very low and the projected improvements in household incomes to enable farmers realize Mr Museveni’s dream of each of them earning Shs20 million per year remains just that – a farfetched dream.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) is yet to release figures on poverty and unemployment drawn from the 2014 National Housing and Population Census, but the poverty levels in Busoga have remained high over the last 15 years.

The World Bank’s Uganda Poverty Assessment Report 2016 says reduction of poverty has been much slower in northern and eastern Uganda than in western and central parts of the country.

A 2011/2012 UBOS National Panel Survey report released in 2013 put poverty levels in Eastern Uganda at 33.1 per cent, well above the national average of 32.2 per cent.

The study used the 2005/2006 Uganda National Household Survey as the baseline and the findings are based on the household expenditure on food and non-food items.

The World Bank’s “Uganda Poverty Assessment 2016: Fact Sheet” now says the concentration of poverty in eastern Uganda increased between 2006 and 2013 from 68 per cent to 84 per cent. Households in the same region were also discovered to have lower human capital, fewer assets and more limited access to services and infrastructure.

The jobs that had been expected to be generated following the implementation of the project have also not been realized.

Official position

No government official, whether from the Presidency or any Ministry that would otherwise be concerned with implementing such a policy, would offer an explanation on the failure of the promise to take off.

Daily Monitor position

The agricultural zoning programme, which was meant to be replicated across the country, seemed a great idea, but it still has gaps that should address concerns about lack of definitive markets and an underdeveloped agro-processing industry.

The zoning programme also seems to have died prematurely due to government’s failure to place its institutions and departments above individuals.

The programme should have been placed under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and not in the hands of an individual whose ability and capacity to follow up a project of such a magnitude was pegged to his station in life as an area MP and ruling party mobiliser.

There is need for a proper way of documenting and backing the programme through enacting policy, and following up the various pledges the President makes, lest the programmes end as political campaign promises as government officials soon ignore them.

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