Drop in crop yields blamed on few advisory services

Ms Dorcus Oucu, a farmer in in Ngetta Sub-county, Lira District, harvested only 50 kilogrammes of maize from her two-acre field due to decline in crop yields.
“I planted Longe 5 [maize variety] after accessing the seeds from the Third Northern Uganda Social Action Fund project last year, and I invested about Shs400,000 in land preparation, planting and weeding,” she says.
Ms Oucu is one of the farmers in Lango Sub-region that are facing such challenges due to inadequate rural advisory services.
“When we call them (farmers) for our trainings, only two or three turn up and those who do always come with a lot of expectations like sitting allowance. We should give them inputs, they want seeds, they want chemicals,” Mr James Okolla, an entomology officer in Lira District, says.
“We needed to ascertain whether the seeds Ms Oucu planted germinated well because sometimes they may not,” he adds.
A September 2018 study commissioned by Advance Afrika in Abim, Lira and Soroti districts indicates that despite government recruiting extension workers, the rural advisory services providers were still inadequate.
However, the researchers said if fully utilised, extension workers could help increase incomes as well as the resilience of smallholder farmers.
Mr Moses Onika, an agricultural officer in Barr Sub-county in Lira, concurs. Mr Onika handles 89 households in the area alone.
“When you go to a household, you will not only handle maize, you find that the farmer has planted so many other crops,” Mr Onika says.
“So, in a day you might visit two or three households and you are already tired. When you are there, they don’t tell whether you are a crop person or veterinary [officer], they just ask you anything,” he adds.
Mr Onika says agriculture in Uganda is confronted with so many challenges, including slow rate of adoption of yield enhancing technologies and practices.
He says other challenges include limited availability and use of good quality inputs, herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers and poor post-harvest management practices and storage facilities.
The concerns over inadequate extension workers if left unattended to, experts warn “are a catastrophe” as smallholder farmers cannot increase food production without their services.
Mr Benson Otima, agribusiness consultant, says many farmers are left to venture on their own because of insufficient agricultural extension services.
Mr Otima says some extension staff cannot afford a computer or newspaper hence hindering them from accessing information.
“That is why production and productivity in Uganda is very low because all those reasons just add up to low production, poor storage, poor post-harvest management and poor marketing,” he adds.
However, Mr Okolla disagrees, saying: “The only gap I see with central government is organising regular seminars and trainings for extension workers.”
Mr Okolla says government has given motorcycles to extension workers countrywide as part of its efforts to support them.
“They are giving us extension funds and in every quarter, each extension worker in the district gets about Shs1m for fuel and mobilisation,” he says.

Optimistic

Mr James Onika, a Lira entomology officer, says maize production could increase by about 300 per cent if farmers adapt the best yield enhancing technologies and practices. He says some farmers that accessed the services of agricultural extension staff have in recent years realised a maize bumper harvest. They can now harvest between 3,000 to 5,000kgs of maize down from 1,000kgs per hectare. An assessment on agri-skills for smallholder farmers conducted by Advance Afrika in Lira, Soroti and Abim districts in 2018 indicates that the agricultural sector has potential to create jobs for youth.