Stop complaining about employment and invest in agriculture.

Agriculture is the most important export sector in Uganda contributing nearly 46 pct. of the total exports in 2010.  The sector provides employment to over 70 pct. of Uganda’s labour force. However, there are significant barriers to increasing production and productivity, as well as value addition, especially to the export crops.

NAADS board chairman, Dr.Aggrey

“In Kenya the youth have changed their mindset to embrace agriculture other than office work because they know what farming has to offer,” he said.

He was addressing a delegation of Ugandan youth who were on a seven-day agricultural study tour in Kenya.

The head of the delegation, who is the chairman of the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS), Aggrey Bagiire said the government is mostly engaging the youth, women and people with disability (PWD’s).

He said government is taking these groups to education tours of agriculture to ensure that the country has stable food for both domestic consumption and sale.

He said the World Bank, through East African Agricultural Programme (EAAP), zoned Uganda to champion the cassava technology, Kenya for dairy, Tanzania for rice technology and Ethiopia for wheat as a way to boost the agricultural economy in Africa.

“NAADS, EAAP and National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) teamed up to change the mindset of people but mostly the youth, women and the PWDs in agriculture in order to reduce the rate of unemployment and dependency,” said Bagiire.

NAADS youth manager, Dr. Aggrey Kyobuguzi thanked the Kenyan government for its investment in the dairy training institutions in the country, saying it had helped other countries like Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and others to visit and learn the modern technologies of dairy farming.

Some of the Ugandan youth who recently attended the tour. PHOTO/Abdulkarim Ssengendo

Kyobuguzi said through routine visits to Kenyan dairy institutes, by 2015, Ugandans could also have established similar institutes back home using knowledge they acquire on such trips.
He was optimistic that some of these institutes will be initiated by youth, women and the PWDs in different regions of the country to help other farmers acquire knowledge on dairy farming , aquaculture and poultry farming.

Overview of the Dairy Sector

The dairy sector is one of the critical sectors in Uganda, COMESA and East African Community (EAC), with high

potential for improving food security and welfare. Recent analysis provides clear evidence of increasing demand

for dairy products (and other foods of animal origin) in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and other developing regionsof the world as a result of rapid population growth, urbanization and increasing purchasing power.

In Uganda, dairy production takes place under any of the following four categories of farming systems;

Zero grazing (i.e. the cow is fed exclusively on concentrates; no grazing). Refers to the confinement of a few animals in a small enclosure where feeds or fodder and water are brought to the animals. According to study done by Mbabazi Pamela (2005), at least 20% of low income households in Ankole have received a zerograzing cow not only from government but also from such organizations as Send A Cow (UK) and Heifer International Project. The advantage of this grazing system is that people without much land for grazing are able to raise cattle to produce milk for home consumption and to earn an income. This system is widely practiced in Uganda especially is the Eastern, Western and Southern Western regions.

Fenced/paddock grazing (i.e. grazing cattle in paddocks or/and feeding them with concentrates) is a

common farming practice in areas where the land holdings are fairly small. This type of grazing requires land clearing and improved pasture. It’s largely practiced by farmers of hybrid and cross-breed cattle and has expanded rapidly with the liberalization of the economy which has resulted in the need to make farms economically viable. In order to increase production, dairy farmers have planted legumes, elephant grass and alfalfa for their cattle.

Free range grazing (i.e. grazing cattle by moving them all over the farm). Traditional practice especially in the extensive grasslands in the Southern part of Uganda. The farmland is often not paddocked, but the boundaries are fenced with a local plant. The daily routine of open grazing is morning milking, grazing, watering evening milking and late evening grazing. This system is being phased out because of the sensitive  nature of land encroachment.

Communal grazing (i.e. pastoral grazing on communal land owned by clan). Still practiced in North- Eastern part of Uganda (Karamoja, Kotido, Moroto, Amuria, and Soroti). The government is discouraged this system of cattle grazing, but culture still overrides government initiative.

The livestock sub sector contributes 18% of agriculture gross domestic product (GDP) and between 7%-9% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). Of the GDP attributed to the livestock sub sector the dairy sector is estimated to contribute up to 45% and plays an important role as a source of food, income and employment.

Dairy farming is concentrated in 42 districts found in the cattle corridor which stretches from the South Western region through central to north eastern. On average, 60% of the households in the cattle corridor keep livestock.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and aquatic plants, that requires the farmer to add feed, and perform other interventions to increase species production. The practice can take many forms. From large-scale systems that often require greater inputs (feed and fertilizer) and spit out negative effects, like the spewing of waste effluent into waterways, to small-scale systems that make more efficient use of existing resources. Integrated aquaculture can convert plant and animal waste into high quality fish protein, and yield pond mud for use as fertilizer to improve soil quality on crop land.

During the seven-day tour, the delegation that comprised 80 people including youth, PWDs, State House officials and resident district commissioners, visited agricultural institutes and prominent farmers in Naivasha, Thika, Nairobi, Limuru, Ruiru and Githunguri in central Kenya.


A documentary on agribusiness high-lighting some of the best practices being employed by Kenyan farmers that can be borrowed by Uganda youths to bridge the missing gaps in Uganda's agricultural system.