Govt looks to the farm in climate change fight

The government has embarked on boosting the country’s efforts to curb climate vulnerability resulting from substantial reliance on climate-sensitive natural resources such as land, forests, wetlands, water, and wildlife.

While Uganda’s population is projected to grow from the current 48.6 million (2023) to 70 million by 2040, pressure on its natural resources will escalate drastically unless urgent measures are taken to deal with it.

The State minister for Agriculture, Mr Fred Bwino,  on September 20, said the government is initiating ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’, a mechanisation project aimed at improving crop production and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Once rolled out, the government intends to implement the project in 69 districts in east, northeast, north, and western Uganda, defined by their agroecological zones.  They included the north-eastern dry lands (Karamoja), north-eastern savannah grasslands (Acholi and Lango) and the Kyoga Plains (Lango, Teso, Bukedi and northern Busoga).

According to Mr Bwino, the project, valued at $350 million (Shs 1.3 trillion), received Cabinet approval in mid-September and now awaits parliamentary endorsement for immediate implementation.

Land users and its resources including crop, livestock and fish farmers, pastoralists, forest users, refugees and their host communities, are targeted to be the direct beneficiaries. At least 2,850,000  Ugandans and 50,000 refugees are expected to benefit directly, translating to 2.9 million beneficiaries across the country. 

Whereas it aims at scaling up climate-smart appropriate management practices to land use systems to address land degradation effects, the government plans to establish a mechanisation centre in each of the targeted sub-regions featuring large earth-moving equipment such as bulldozers, graders, and combined harvesters, Mr Bwino said.

The minister explained that this initiative will address the challenges of underutilised land by farmers, the scarcity of farm machinery, and the absence of heavy machinery at the regional level. 

Other components include refurbishment of existing agro-processing equipment and machinery, conservation and restoration of degraded land and habitats, and fish farming (aquaculture) for the production of cultured fish through investments in the establishment of ponds and fish cages in targeted communities.

Sub-regions and agroecological zones are targeted due to the ever-increasing and high levels of poverty, land and natural resource degradation and significantly low-value production.

Among the most challenging environments in Uganda are wetlands, which despite experiencing a decline of an estimated 6,146.6km2 (2.5 per cent of Uganda’s total surface area) between 1994 and 2015, still covered 13 percent of the country’s surface area.

Locals speak out

Ms Angella Abur, a resident of Pece Parish in Gulu City,  yesterday said : The government must commit those resources to mitigate the catalysts of climate change like deforestation and wetland degradation because those are the biggest problems we now have.”

She says food security is being threatened by climate change.

Ms Veronica Aling, a resident of Holy Rosary Village in Gulu City, said  the government needs to sensitise locals  on mitigating climate change.

“People already understand the biting effects of climate change, however, it is a tough job for the government to provide alternative livelihood sources to drive people away from deforestation and charcoal burning which is a big factor,” Ms Aling said yesterday.

Statistics

A year ago, the World Bank Group in its appraisal of the project’s environmental and social review, said sustainable utilisation and management of wetlands in the 69 districts of project locations will be key during its implementation.

“The wetlands in the eastern and western regions were more encroached on – the two regions are the leading rice growing areas in Uganda. Besides rice growing, wetland degradation has been driven by extraction of sand, clay, water, etc., infrastructure construction including valley dams, introduction of pollutants, excessive nutrients; and weak enforcement of laws governing the sustainable use of wetlands,” the group said.

It added that the zero-cost component will finance eligible expenditures under the Immediate Response Mechanism in case of natural or man-made crises or disasters such as severe droughts, floods, specific pest and disease outbreaks and severe economic shocks in Uganda.

The group noted that wetlands provide vital ecosystem services such as microclimate regulation and water filtration, storage and release, and at the same time are vulnerable to unsustainable agricultural practices.

Meanwhile, a recent request that the government tabled before Parliament seeking approval to borrow up to $650 million (Shs2.9 trillion) from different financial institutions to finance part of its budget, has cast doubts over the sustainability of the project since it will be run using borrowed funds.

Funding sources

Last month, Mr Matia Kasaija, the minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, told Parliament that the government intends to borrow up to $295 million (Shs1.3 trillion) from the Islamic Development Bank and $30 million (Shs136.2 billion) from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fund.

Mr Kasaija said the government will borrow another $325 million (Shs1.5 trillion) and receive a grant of up to Standard Drawing Right of $19.5 million (Shs88.5 billion), equivalent to $25 million (Shs113.5 billion) from the International Development Association of the World Bank Group to finance the Uganda climate-smart agricultural transformation project.

Once approved, the loan pushes Uganda into further debt distress with public debt standing rising to more than $24 billion (Shs108.9 trillion).

Currently, Uganda owes external creditors at least $13.6 billion (Shs61.7 trillion), accounting for 31.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while domestic debt amounts to more than $8.4 billion (Shs38.1 trillion), 19.3 per cent of GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Meanwhile, the parliamentary Committee on National Economy is yet to scrutinise the government proposals to borrow funds for financing the Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation Project.

To finance this proejct, the government seeks to borrow $325 million (Shs1.221 billion)  from the International Development Association of the World Bank Group, along with a grant worth $25 million whereas the government will contribute $4.7 million.

The funds aim to reverse the country’s low agricultural productivity trajectory through investing in efficient irrigation, agricultural mechanisation and enhanced farm infrastructure, Mr Kasaijja told legislators during plenary recently.

The Finance minister also told Parliament that the value chains promoted in the project are consistent with those of the Parish Development Model, and will benefit 13.4 million individuals directly and indirectly, including refugee hosting communities.

Legislators react 

Ms Betty Aol Ochan, a member of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, however,  said it is unfortunate that the government is coming out to implement such a programme with an “empty basket of resources” and that the proposal requires critical analysis.

“We need to study the idea completely before submitting it because we do not need to commit to an intervention in which modalities are not clear and the funds end up corrupted. Uganda would not lack the funds to do that project, it has a lot of money but corruption fails all these interventions,” she said.

Ms Aol, who is the Gulu City Woman MP and former Leader of Opposition in Parliament, added: “Implementing the climate-smart agriculture is a great idea that will not only pull millions of Ugandans out of poverty but fight the severe climate change and its impact that has become a very big problem to us in Uganda and globally.”

Meanwhile, Mr Lawrence Biyika Songa, the Ora County MP and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change, said: “Without addressing climate change, our economy can crush, the impact is very severe and it is affecting all sectors of the economy, priorities should be given to climate change mitigation. We have seen the impacts like floods and other disasters that can interrupt other sectors of the economy including education, transport, industrialisation.”

“My concern there is that the money should be used for that particular purpose for which it will be borrowed, we must be very keen to see that the money is properly utilised, and that is my call to the government, otherwise, there have been so many projects before and the impacts are minimal,” he added.

Mr Biyika also said the government is spending on non-priority sectors. 

“The problem is that we are putting money into non-priority sectors pushing us more into consumption instead of revenue-generating investments and that is why we have empty pockets and we have to rely on high-interest; loans to finance our investments,”Mr Biyika said.

Concerns  

In its Agricultural Finance Year Book 2022 published in June, EPRC said despite various government interventions, climate change-triggered damages to the agriculture, water, and infrastructure sectors are likely to reduce annual GDP growth by 2 percent to 4 percent between 2010 and 2050. 

The EPRC says the  country could lose between $3.2 billion and 5.9 billion (between Shs12 trillion and Shs59.7 trillion) annually if the government fails to act on climate change-triggered damages..

Whereas in 2021, the country enacted its climate change law to govern national responses to the effects of climate variability, today, the agricultural sector is still characterised by low production and productivity, driven largely by poor agronomic practices and erratic weather caused by climate change.

“Increased collaboration between and among financial institutions, government, development actors and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) will promote and support resilient agricultural growth and increase investments that directly benefit the Ugandan farmer, the rural poor and the country’s development and environmental wellbeing generally,” EPRC recommended.

It added: “The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies need to be underpinned by strong operational, monitoring and evaluation frameworks that align with the existing and upcoming national and international regulatory standards.”

According to the World Bank Open Data on World Development Indicators  for 2021,Uganda,  a low-income country,  in 2019 had  a population of more than 44.3million, with an annual population growth rate of 3.6 percent. 

The institution said  Uganda’s population is projected to reach 63.8 million by 2030 and 105.7 million by 2050 and that the country had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $35.1 billion (Shs 132 trillion), growing at an average annual rate of 4.5 percent over the past five years. The national poverty rate increased to 20 percent in 2017, however, the poorest region: the Northern region, decreased its poverty rate from 44 percent (2013) to 33 percent (2017).

According to 2019 data, the country’s GDP was primarily comprised of the agriculture sector, which contributed 23.1 percent to GDP, the industry sector (including mining, construction, electricity, water and gas), which contributed 26.3percent of GDP, the export of goods and services which contributed17.2 percent to the country’s economy and tourism which contributed 6.6 percent to GDP in 2016.

Climate change mitigation

According to the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda like the rest of the world and more particularly the least developed countries with the least capacity to adapt, is vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. 

The ministry, on its website, says climate change  is a threat to its fragile ecosystems, people’s livelihoods and ultimately the national economic development efforts. Uganda therefore made a decision to join the Community of Nations in the global cooperation to address the problem in a timeframe safe for life and development sustainability.

In 2008,  the government  created a Climate Change Unit (CCU), now Climate Change Department  as one of the national measures to ensure action. The department is under the office of the Permanent Secretary at  the Ministry of Water and Environment.

The main objective for the establishment of the department  is to strengthen Uganda’s implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol (KP).   

World Bank’s concerns

From its research, the World Bank in 2021 said Uganda is at risk to natural disasters. The country experiences extreme weather events which lead to mudslides, landslides and flooding, particularly for the country’s mountain regions and related districts such as Mbale in the Mt Elgon region. 

Extreme events leading to disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides have increased over the last 30 years.  

Flooding has become more frequent, largely due to more intense rainfall.Over the past two decades, an average of 200,000 Ugandans are affected each year by disasters. Increased intensity of heavy rainfall has led to greater impact of floods and are causing more damage due to expanded infrastructure, human settlement and general development of the country. 

Uganda’s vulnerability is exacerbated due to its high level of poverty and its high dependence on ‘climate sensitive’ sectors: agriculture, water, fisheries, tourism, and forestry.  The country is at high-risk to natural disasters suchas flooding, drought, and landslides, however, its topographic diversity and highly marginalised segments of the population, make it additionally vulnerable.

Flooding, particularly in low-lying areas of the country, presents the largest risk. Each year, floods impact nearly 50,000 people and costs over $62 million.Uganda experiences both flash floods and slow-onset floods, which are common in urban areas, low-lying areas, areas along river banks and swamplands. Areas most prone to floods are the capital city, Kampala, as well as the northern and eastern areas of the country.    

Heavy rainfall in arid areas has led to flash flooding causing infrastructure damage. Areas such as Gulu District, face large challenges in the rainy seasons as large areas of the district become impassable, often resulting in food shortages and inaccessibility to health facilities and schools due to the destruction of roads and bridges from flooding.

Droughts affected close to 2.4 million people between 2004 and 2013, and drought conditions in 2010 and 2011 caused an estimated loss and damage value of $1.2 billion, equivalent to 7.5 percent of Uganda’s 2010 GDP. 

Climate change is expected to increase the risk and intensity of flooding as well as increase likelihood for water scarcity for certain areas of the country.