EU’s Green Agricultural Fund: A Golden Opportunity for Uganda’s Sustainable Agriculture
By Shemei Ndawula
Globalization, to the average East African may sound like a distant abstract concept reserved to high powered political boardrooms and civil conference halls as a paperweight occasionally pulled out to spice political, economic and diplomatic discourse. It was thus with panic induced apprehension and fear that we; in Kampala and other parts of Uganda a little over a year ago kept nervously glancing at supermarket shelves to see the prices of common household groceries like bread and wheat skyrocket due to the tensions in Eastern Europe. The President, in his characteristic tongue in cheek humor impressed upon the masses that “if bread is expensive, you eat Cassava” as was widely quoted by local dailies. For a country with one of the lowest costs of living in Africa, these were unprecedented times and the tension in Kampala streets was almost palpable.
This is why the move by the European Union and the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries to set up the African Business Initiative (aBi) Green Challenge Fund was such a significant gesture of friendship from the two development partners to Uganda. This fund, aimed at directly benefiting small holder and medium scale farmers as well as other partners along the value chain envisions a revolutionary approach to Agribusiness in Uganda to both promote food self sufficiency and stem the negative impacts of climate change.
Statics by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Index 2021 report reveal that Uganda is the 12th most vulnerable country in the world to the effects of Climate change and incidentally also the 49th least prepared to combat these effects. Growing up, I remember there was a common saying that in Uganda, the soil is so fertile that one can simply drop a seed on the ground and it will grow. Interestingly, Uganda is the 9th biggest country (by land mass in the wider East Africa) with 50% of all arable (farmable) land. Of this land, more than 50% is in Northern Uganda. This means Uganda with a population of less than 40 million people has got the latent potential to feed 200 million with its natural agricultural resources. This begs the question of why the country is in the midst of a food crisis while sited on such abundance? How could Uganda, described as “the food basket of Africa” rely so heavily on imports that the citizens are advised to “eat cassava” as a substitute to the highly inflated price of bread? This is comically reminiscent of the famous line, ‘water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink’, in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.
This is why the efforts of the European Union to spur an agricultural revolution in Uganda through extending credit facilities with focus on the commonly financially marginalized groups of the women and the youth (incidentally also making up the majority of the population) can tap into the latent potential of the country and kickstart the trek to middle income status and also regional food security (and perhaps later prosperity through surplus). This role of the Royal Danish Embassy (contributing over 7 million USD in both financial assets and technical assistance) is also quite instrumental in lieu of their standing as one of the most prosperous and efficient agricultural producing countries in the world. They are best placed to show Ugandan farmers what to do, how to do it and also connect them to international markets to show them why. As someone who regularly imports floriculture products from Denmark, I can testify that there’s a lot we can learn from the Danish to improve our farming practices.
The aBi Green Challenge Fund incidentally fits into the vision of former head of the National Planning Authority Dr Kisamba Mugerwa which he laid in the blueprint for this revolution in his ‘Plan for Modernization of Agriculture’ which envisions a multisectoral approach to transforming Uganda into the agricultural hub of Africa which; a brilliant concept on it’s own would be largely realised through grassroots schemes like the Green fund which promote the modernisation of the Agricultural industry by directly advancing credit facilities to the farmers and also offering technical assistance and guided so that the credit is effectively utilised in an efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly way on top of implementing highly advanced post harvest handling and processing which adopts the aBi platform not just as a credit tool but an essential mechanism in identifying and benchmarking modern and efficient agricultural trends elsewhere as well as securing development partners who can invest in the sector.
As the world goes green and looks to environmental solutions to the energy crisis, it is interesting how African governments are moving through international boardrooms peddling crude oil, a finite resource, while seated on priceless untapped agricultural potential. If we as a country can partner with the China National Oil Company to explore the oil deposits in the Albertine basin, why can’t we also source Chinese companies to invest in Wheat growing in the West Nile basin or diary farming in western Uganda?
The current global food crisis is the perfect time to scout for partners in agricultural development for as the world grapples with shortfalls in essential items like wheat and the realization that it can no longer rely on the Eastern European monopoly on dry grains, the negotiating power of African countries with the potential to bridge this supply gap has possibly never been better. In addition, the current power shift in global politics from a Unipolar to a Multipolar power paradigm means a lot of “new” world powers will be looking at establishing new trade and political alliances which gives African nations unprecedented opportunities to negotiate bilateral partnerships and markets for agriculture. With the help of development partners like the European Union and the Royal Danish Embassy, this economic crisis can be turned around into Uganda’s ticket to a greener, healthier and more sustainable economy.
Shemei Ndawula is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.
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