Is that this allocation for all Ugandans?
Kiryandongo, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | “I’ve heard the manager has increased the budget for agriculture yet again. However how precisely will that motivate my limited onion and maize farm here in Kiryandongo?” puzzled a 32-year-archaic farmer in Mutunda sub-county, reflecting on the newly announced national budget.
His query reflects a broader concern shared by many farmers all the map in which through the country: whether or no longer the agriculture allocations outlined in Uganda’s Shs72.1 trillion budget for the monetary year 2025/2026 will translate into exact, local affect.
Agriculture stays the backbone of Uganda’s financial system, employing over 65% of the inhabitants and contributing about 24% to GDP. It’s no shock then that the manager has as soon as extra placed agriculture at the center of its financial agenda below the budget theme, “Full Monetisation of the Ugandan Financial system.”
Mountainous numbers, bigger expectations
The chief has allotted Shs1.059 trillion to the Parish Pattern Mannequin (PDM) for the original monetary year. The funds, disbursed in tranches of Shs100 million per parish, carry total investment in the programme to Shs3.3 trillion, retaining over 10,600 parishes and reaching extra than 2.6 million beneficiaries. Of these funds, forty five% has gone into sever farming, particularly maize, cassava, bananas and onions, whereas 36% is channelled into cattle, and the leisure helps poultry and blended enterprises.
The Ministry of Finance also committed Shs50 billion to the Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF) to ease score entry to to practical finance for farmers. Since its inception, ACF has disbursed over Shs1 trillion to extra than 14,000 farmers, funding grain buying and selling, on-farm improvements, agro-processing, and post-harvest storage. Executive says such interventions are important for reworking agriculture from subsistence to business ranges.
Give a rob to for worth addition shall be ramping up. In FY2025/26, original investments in fortified foods esteem child procedure made out of domestically grown maize, eggs, and milk have been prioritised. Additionally, the NARO vaccine facility in Wakiso is now producing 20 million doses of anti-tick vaccines yearly, tackling cattle ailments which have long plagued Ugandan farmers.
To bolster resilience in opposition to local weather shocks, executive has increased irrigation infrastructure. 145 photo voltaic-powered irrigation schemes have been accomplished, and any other 157 are below constructing, with 4,300 micro-irrigation programs installed in over 130 districts. Key colossal-scale irrigation works in Kween, Butaleja, Lira, Kasese, and Oyam are also being finalised.
Bitter truth
Despite the ambitious budget, civil society actors are raising considerations about implementation gaps and structural challenges that probability diluting affect on the ground.
At a post-budget dialogue held on June 18 in Kampala, Allan Ssebulime of PELUM Uganda argued that whereas the policy direction is commendable, most local governments—tasked with handing over the services and products—are underfunded and poorly geared up. In Soroti, he acknowledged, lawful 4.1% of the district’s budget is allotted to manufacturing, whereas 89% is absorbed by recurrent expenses esteem wages. Luwero reveals a identical sample, with over 70% of funds tied to non-development expenses.
Ssebulime added that aquaculture, a subsector with huge export capability, continues to receive little give a rob to, no matter being a strategic order of Uganda’s agro-industrialisation technique. He also cited the power lack of score entry to to practical and constant quality animal and fish feed as a important constraint.
“Quality feed is the basis of productiveness. If farmers can’t score entry to or give you the cash for it, we’re going so as to’t relate about reworking agriculture,” he acknowledged.
Concerns have been also raised over the dearth of operational funding for agricultural extension workers. Many districts are unable to gasoline motorcycles or withhold very critical field gear, leaving frontline workers unable to present a rob to farmers successfully.
Julius Mukunda, Executive Director of the Civil Society Funds Advocacy Group (CSBAG), pointed out that Uganda’s high 19.1% hobby fee atmosphere, largely driven by excessive home borrowing, is crowding out non-public sector investment, including in agriculture. He called for added fiscal discipline, smartly timed project completion, and clearing of home arrears to stabilise the financial system and execute development finance extra accessible.
Whereas the agriculture budget ticks many boxes when it involves policy direction, questions persist on whether or no longer it goes far ample to help all Ugandans, particularly smallholder farmers who create over 70% of the country’s food.
Agriculture holds the critical to Uganda’s industrial transformation, food safety, and rural employment. However except funding is matched with local capability, accountability, and smartly timed implementation, farmers esteem the one in Kiryandongo will proceed to search files from the same query: Is that this allocation truly for all of us?
