Enhancing Mechanised Farming in Uganda

Kiyaga Kenneth
Farmer & Part time Economist

Mechanised agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to simplify farming with the aim of increasing productivity. Though Uganda is endowed with fertile soils and favourable climate, the major factors that influence agriculture, the country continues to produce at a low scale.Studies have shown that 99.4% smallholder farmers in Uganda use traditional, rudimentary and obsolete technologies and methodologies for post-harvest operations. The African Union reports that African farmers have ten times fewer mechanized tools per farm area than farmers in other developing regions and access has not grown as quickly as the other regions

These are contributing factors to low farm output. To change this, the Government came up with agriculture mechanisation as a strategy of restructuring the sector. Efforts were put in place, that would have seen farmers change their ways of farming, mechanisation would have become one of the key pillars of agricultural transformation and modernization if only implementation had fully taken off. The efforts that would have been directed into the occupation of cost-effective farm tools would have tried to integrate majority Ugandans who represented over 70% of the country’s labour force.

Benefits

Besides improving production efficiency, mechanisation encourages large-scale production and improves the quality of farm produce. Morris Rwakakamba, the special presidential assistant in charge of research and information, says a lot is needed to ensure that mechanisation is promoted at a large scale.“The Government needs to strengthen the current mechanisation policy; commit funds for the farmers and private sector to acquire farm machinery and equipment,” he says. Rwakakamba adds that there is also need to promote local manufacture of farm tools and equipment for post-harvest handling and creating Government-managed central and regional workshops to provide technical back-stopping and critical maintenance eservices.

It provides employment opportunities in communities and leads to agricultural led industrialization and rural economic growth depending of varied circumstances like the land tenure system, mode of agricultural investment, seasonal or irrigational farming, crop or animal husbandry, and many more. This addresses the problem of labor shortage of able bodied persons arising from rural-urban migration.