Kalembe, who is canvassing for votes on various media platforms in Kampala says agriculture contributes a lot to the of the country with at least 22 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to 2019 statistics and most of the population (60 % both formal and informal) deriving their livelihood from the sector.
Presidential candidate Nancy Linda Kalembe has promised to
revitalize the agricultural sector in the country if elected president.
Kalembe, who is canvassing for votes on various media platforms in Kampala says
agriculture contributes a lot to the of the country with at least 22 percent of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to 2019 statistics and most of the
population (60 % both formal and informal) deriving their livelihood from the
sector.
According to Kalembe, much as the majority of Ugandans rely on crop production,
animal husbandry, and fisheries, but the government only allocates a mere 3.25
percent (1.3 trillion of 40 trillion shillings) of the budget to the sector.
Kalembe promised to increase the agriculture budget to 8 % percent
(3.2 trillion shillings), saying it is not possible to attain the 10 percent
prescribed by the Abuja declaration.
She also promised to promote agricultural businesses, open agricultural
cooperatives, demonstration centers, and banks to provide storage, skills,
knowledge, and low-interest loans to farmers in her tenure as president.
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Kalembe, says that with more funding allocated to the agriculture sector, youth
unemployment can be eased in Uganda. According to the Uganda Bureau of
Statistics, youth unemployment stands at 83% of the 33 million youths in
Uganda. She notes that several young people in the country lack jobs and can be
easily absorbed in the agriculture sector in Uganda.
But local farmers demand the improvement of the entire agriculture value chain
from seed buying, cost of inputs, good roads, better agriculture produce
markets and prices for their commodities.
Grace Mukisa, a maize farmer demands Nancy Linda Kalembe, the
presidential candidate to find mechanisms of stabilizing the prices of
agriculture produce in Uganda.
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Simon Okiror, a mixed crop farmer in Kabaga Wakiso district believes better
roads should be constructed from the farms to the markets, the cost of seeds
reduced and markets made easily available.
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Ramathan Ggoobi, a senior lecturer at Makerere University Business School
(MUBS) says agriculture must be promoted in Uganda in terms of promoting food
security, job creation, and environmental protection where people have food and
can be healthy to do productive work.
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But Dr David Kantale Kazungu, an agriculture consultant prefers promoting
agriculture while prioritizing environmental protection and enforcement of
discipline in land use, wetlands, and forests for a sustainable agriculture
sector.
He says that the extension services must be reinstated, facilitated and
decentralized in Uganda traditional farming methods that are cost-free like
fallowing land to increase productivity, terracing, and mulching should be embraced
as opposed to the use of chemicals that kill the plants and animals in the
environmental ecosystems.
