Aid in Uganda: Agriculture
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by Hai Mettrick 2US Od Overseas Development Institute a Aid in Uganda—Agriculture The crucial nature of agriculture's role in economic development is being recognised more and more. But how can agricultural development be stimulated ? What part can overseas aid donors play ? These problems are considered in the context of a specific country in Aid in Uganda—Agriculture. This study analyses the difficulties facing the Uganda Government in developing agriculture and how it is dealing with them. It then goes on to consider the various programmes of aid to agriculture in Uganda, and discusses how these can be made more effective. Issues which are high lighted are the importance of technical assistance, and the need for donors to provide more capital aid for local and recurrent costs if they are to assist agricultural development. This study is the final part of ODI's three-part case study of aid in Uganda. The previous volumes are Aid in Uganda—Programmes and Policies by Ralph Clark, and Aid in Uganda—Education by Peter Williams. The author of Aid in Uganda—Agriculture is Hal Mettrick. 00020881 Overseas Development Institute Aid in Uganda Agriculture by Hal Mettrick Published by The Overseas Development Institute Ltd 160 Piccadilly London W1 England © Copyright Overseas Development Institute Ltd. 1967 The Overseas Development Institute Ltd. is responsible for determining that this work should be presented to the public, but individual members of the Council are not responsible for statements of fact and expressions of opinion contained herein. Contents Page Foreword 6 1 Introduction: Agriculture in Uganda's Economy 9 2 Problems of Agricultural Development: Organisation of Production 1 Land Tenure 19 2 Mechanisation 22 3 Group Farming 24 4 Small-scale Production 26 5 Estate Production 31 6 Ranching 33 7 Resettlement Schemes 34 3 Problems of Agricultural Development: Some Other Issues 1 Manpower and Education 36 2 Marketing and Co-operatives 39 3 Cotton and Coffee Prices 42 4 Agricultural Credit 44 4 Development Plans and Policies 1 The Colonial Period 47 2 The World Bank Mission 48 3 The First Five-Year Development Plan 49 4 The Second Five-Year Development Plan 56 5 Plan Preparation and Implementation 61 5 Overseas Aid 1 Britain 65 2 United States 73 3 West Germany 79 4 USSR 80 5 Yugoslavia 80 6 China 81 7 Israel 82 8 Norway 83 9 Canada 83 10 Other Bilateral Donors 84 Page 11 United Nations Development Programme 84 12 UNICEF 88 13 Freedom from. Hunger Campaign 89 14 The Rockefeller Foundation 91 6 Comment 1 The Impact of Aid 92 2 Aid Tying and Local Costs 97 3 Technical Assistance: Experts 99 4 Technical Assistance: Training 105 5 Multilateral Aid 107 6 Co-operation and Co-ordination 111 7 Administration 113 8 Future Needs 116 7 Summary of Conclusions 122 Appendix: Uganda and its Agriculture A Background Sketch 124 Glossary of Abbreviations 129 Index 130 List of Tables Table Page 1 Total Number of Africans Reported Employed 1958-1964 11 2 Domestic Exports Principal Commodities by Quantity and Value 15 3 Uganda Government Revenue: Sources 17 4 Cultivated Area on Non-African Estates 1920-1964 32 5 Qualifications and Salaries of Different Grades of Agricultural Staff 36 6 Levies on Incomes of Cotton and Coffee Growers 1945-1960 43 7 Comparison of Planned Sectoral Expenditure in Develop ment Plans 50 8 Comparison of Planned Agricultural Expenditure in Development Plans 52 9 Comparison of Planned and Actual Expenditure for Selected Projects in the First Plan 55 10 Gross Output of Major Products from the Rural Sector Second Plan 58 11 British £6m Development Loan 67 12 US Aid to Agriculture 73 13 UNDP Agricultural Technical Assistance Missions 1963-1966 87 14 UK Freedom from Hunger Campaign Projects 90 15 Capital Aid for Uganda's First Five-Year Development Plan 93 16 Financing Development Spending 117 Maps Major Tribes Main Food and Cash Crops Foreword This volume is the third in ODI's three-part case study of overseas aid in the development of Uganda. The previous volumes, Aid in Uganda— Programmes and Policies and Aid in Uganda—Education, were published in 1966. The first was a scene-setting survey of the many aid operations in Uganda and it examined some of the problems of utilising effectively the assistance that was provided by a multitude of donors. The second examined in detail the special problems of educational assistance in an agrarian society. The study of Uganda has been undertaken for a number of reasons. In the course of its work on donor aid policies and the machinery of the programmes ODI had become, as was said in the foreword to the first part of the Uganda study, 'conscious of the fact that in these donor studies only one side of the medal was being looked at. We were developing a headquarters or staff officers' view point. Not that this was necessarily in opposition to other view points. It was simply that it did not give a complete picture of what was going on; and it was a hindrance to the identification of many of the weak links in aid programmes that needed to be strengthened if the quality of aid were to be improved ... It was not that we had any specific anxiety about Uganda as such, but rather that we wished to use it as an illustration of a much more general anxiety about aid as a universal phenomenon.' We were particularly interested in Uganda because its 'economic base was largely agrarian and we felt that the problems of assisting the agricultural sector had, in the majority of donor aid programmes, been the least satisfactorily tackled'. Over the past few years food production in the developing countries taken together has been lagging behind the rapid population increases which they have been experiencing. Concern over this situation has caused more attention than hitherto to be given to the problem of agricultural development. In particular donors of aid to developing countries have wanted to increase the effectiveness of their aid to agriculture and yet have been frustrated by the difficulties involved in doing this. This volume attempts to throw some light on the problems of providing aid to agricul ture and of how the effectiveness of this aid can be improved. Unless the context indicates otherwise, agriculture is to be taken throughout to include livestock, forestry, and fisheries. It is the intention that the studies in this series should have a wider relevance than merely to the problems of Uganda. A word of warning, however, is necessary. No developing country is typical. There are no general rules for developing agriculture, nor even general reasons why a country should want to put a large part of its development effort into agriculture. It has been remarked above that interest has concentrated on agriculture because of the food problem, but this is certainly not the princi pal problem in Uganda. This fact probably increases rather than diminishes the relevance of Uganda for the present purpose, because the development of agriculture can then be treated in the context of general economic development and not as a special emergency problem with the inevitable accompanying distortions. To study aid in a context divorced from the development problems which it is trying to help would obviously be nonsensical. This is particularly so in the case of agriculture where the problems have seemed more intractable than in other fields. For this reason a large part of this volume is devoted to a discussion of the problems which face the Uganda Government in attempting to stimulate agricultural development. It starts with a discussion of the role of agriculture in the economic develop ment of Uganda. Then it discusses the problems of agricultural develop ment in Uganda and sets them against their background. A third part deals with the Government's plans and policies for agricultural development and puts them in historical perspective. The fourth part describes the aid to agriculture which there has so far been and attempts to throw some light on its effectiveness. And the fifth comments on these experiences and tries to indicate scope for improvement in donor aid programmes. Additional background material is included in an appendix. The study is written to be read on its own, but it will no doubt be more meaningful if it is read in conjunction with the first volume in the series, Aid in Uganda— Programmes and Policies, so that aid for agriculture can be seen in the context of aid for the entire economy. The present volume has been prepared by Hal Mettrick, who has been assisted by Alison Franks. Both are members of the ODI research staff. The audior wishes to express his thanks to all those people in East Africa and the United Kingdom, in both governmental and other institutions, who have been so generous with their time in providing help and advice not only when the field work was being undertaken but later in reading and commenting on the study when it was in draft form. The guidance of the Steering Committee, which consisted of D. R. Carter (Barclays Bank DCO), R. Coleman (United Africa Company), Arthur Gaitskell (Commonwealth Development Corporation), Leonard Joy (London School of Economics), and R. J. M. Swynnerton (Commonwealth Development Corporation), is gratefully acknowledged. It should however be made clear that respon sibility for the survey rests wholly with the author. The whole of the Uganda study has been financed by a generous grant from the Leverhulme Trust. TOM SOPER Director of Studies 1—Introduction: Agriculture in Uganda's Economy Uganda is an agricultural country.