As Uganda joins the rest of the World to celebrate the World Food Day, on the 16/10/2018. Small scale farmers in Uganda are demanding government to subsidies Agricultural mechanization machines to make them affordability to local farmers.
The current market prices for some agricultural machines such as tractors are too expensive especially to the small holder farmers yet they are the majority stakeholders in the Agriculture sector. Hakim Baliraine the national chairperson ESAFF Uganda urges that once the farmers have access to these machines it will lower cost of production in the agriculture sector. “The cost of production is high because of using traditional equipment’s government should come in to ensure that farmers can access modern farming tools such walking tractors and other machines this will enhance agricultural production thus Uganda food secure” He said.
Apart from the tractors , the government should also work on the issue of women owning land ,majority of Ugandan women are accessing lands for substance farming but they don’t have the right to own such resources this has also affected their full participation in agriculture sector. “The more women have equal rights on land Uganda’s agricultural sector will grow at high rate since women contribute much in the sector but without having the rights to own lands in some societies this will remain big hindrance to the transformation of the sector” He added.
In order to achieve Zero Hunger World by 2030 small scale farmers demand, government to respect International obligation which the Country ratified such as the Malabo declaration in which the African Heads of states Agreed to allocate 10% of their National Budget to Agriculture sector. With an increment in the budget it will enhance the building resilience to shocks, including adapting to the effects of climate change.
The mismatch in designing agricultural policies as well as lack of adequate funds for implementation of the agricultural sector policy strategies has made it very difficult to create food production systems that help maintain ecosystems and that can be able to adapt to climate change, drought, weather or any other disasters in farming communities.
Why more resources should be invested in the Agriculture sector? Uganda as country has one of the fast growing population on the African continent such high population can cause hunger however, Uganda as a country has potential to produce sufficient food to meet its consumption needs and surplus to export to other countries but the main problem lays with inequality in access of the available resources especially the small scale farmers who are the major producers of food.
On the Government decision of giving 100 Billion shillings to the Uganda Grains council, we the farmers we are urging government to recall the 100 billion allocated to buy off excess maize through the Uganda Grain Council to be directly transferred to farmers through cooperatives or organized groups.
This year’s theme of “A Zero hunger world by 2030 is possible” is derived from pillar 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals of ‘Zero hunger” which aims at ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. The main target to reach this goal is to increase the agricultural productivity and the incomes of small scale food producers in particular women and the local people.
Every year, on the 16th October, World Food Day is celebrated around the world to help raise awareness on issues concerning hunger, poverty and malnutrition, and to strengthen the political will to take action.
The focus of the day is that food is a basic and fundamental human right. Yet in a world of billions, 805 million people worldwide live with chronic hunger, 60% of women and almost 5 million children under the age of five die of malnutrition- related causes every day. Extreme hunger and malnutrition unavoidably create barrier to sustainable development, since many people become unproductive more prone to diseases thus unable to improve their livelihoods.
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