Targeted,well packaged financing will improve agri

By ISMAIL MUSA LADU

Kampala. Targeted and well packaged financing services is the only way that agriculture will improve, according to Central Bank deputy governor Louis Kasekende.
While delivering a key note address on whether the present agriculture finance and investment instruments are ideal to realise the Green Revolution in Africa, Mr Kasekende said a holistic and well packaged approach must be adopted by all the financing institutions in Uganda and Africa.

“Any effort aimed at modernising agriculture including financing instruments must target the vulnerabilities of the typical African farmer.

So the approach should include strengthening management capacities of farming groups, enhancing quality, and dealing with coordination inefficiencies in the provision of agriculture services,” he said.
Uganda and Africa at large, has been putting in place measures that seek to modernise agriculture.

However, the sector continues to be highly subsistence.
Uganda has for more than a decade struggled to fulfill the Maputo Declaration, which demands that African countries must appropriate 10 per cent of their budgets to agriculture.
In over 10 years, Uganda has appropriated less than 4 per cent of its budget to agriculture.
Mr Kasekende said interventions such as improvement in rural infrastructure, provision of extension services, strengthening legal regimes and access to quality seeds, among others must be availed if agriculture is to improve.
However, the country has been using a number of specialised functions such as direct credit extension and guarantee schemes, warehouse receipts, direct farmer input supplies, insurance schemes and tax reforms to improve agriculture.
 

Source: Daily Monitor