Agricultural Productivity Constraints in Uganda: Implications for Investment

Uganda has put emphasis on the agricultural sector as a strategy for raising rural incomes and reducing rural poverty. The Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) was designed in 2000 for this purpose. However, available secondary data show that crop yields are low despite the availability of productivity- enhancing technologies on the market. The study uses household data from four rural districts selected from two ago-ecological zones to explore profitability and productivity of two technologies: improved maize varieties and improved cattle breed. The research findings indicate that growing improved maize is more profitable than local maize across all farm sizes. Similarly, improved cattle breeds (exotic and cross breeds) are more profitable and more productive than indigenous cattle. The findings suggest the need to strengthen the PMA interventions, especially under the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) in order to promote the adopting of improved technologies. The results further reveal that the farming system in northern Uganda is as productive as the coffee-banana farming system. Therefore, the poverty situation in northern Uganda is not dues to low productivity or profitability of agriculture, but perhaps due to exogenous factors such as the war that has afflicted the area since the late 1980s.