Agricultural research as an impulse for economic transformation

____________

Author: Frank Mugabi

In his 2024/2025 budget speech, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the Hon. Matia Kasaija in particular highlighted the key role of agriculture in driving Uganda’s economic transformation.

The agricultural sector continues to be the backbone of Uganda’s economic growth; employing approximately 70% of the population and contributing 23.8% of national GDP in the 2022/2023 financial year.

The budget theme, “Full monetization of the Ugandan economy through commercial agriculture, industrialization, development and expansion of services, digital transformation and market access”, highlights the need to prioritize investment in the agricultural sector for the country to achieve its ambitious development goals.

Achieving progressive agriculture is impossible without significant investment in research and development.

Changing environmental conditions create new challenges for agriculture, such as floods, droughts, pests and diseases, leading to significant agricultural losses.

A robust system prepared to meet these challenges justifies the need for significant investment in agricultural research and development.

The National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) has a nationwide mandate to lead initiatives that increase agricultural productivity and ensure food security.

Over the past 30 years, NARO has developed over 1,000 technologies, innovations and management practices.

In particular, progress in establishing a local tick vaccine production facility in Namulonge is a key step towards tackling the problem of tick-borne diseases, which cause annual losses of up to $1.1 billion.

Adequate funding can accelerate vaccine production, ensure timely and widespread distribution, save significant costs and support the region’s estimated £3 trillion meat and milk market.

With increased financial support, NARO can develop and implement more effective and differentiated solutions for the broader livestock sector.

Similarly, the development of an afla-safe facility in Namulonge to combat aflatoxins in grains and nuts is progressing, although funding gaps remain.

Aflatoxins pose a serious threat to food safety and agricultural exports, impacting farmers’ incomes and public health. Increased funding would enable NARO to expand this initiative, providing broader reach and more robust solutions to secure both domestic and international food supplies.

The plant will have a production capacity of 5 tons of aflasafe per hour. Once the facility is operational, Uganda will save an estimated $38 million annually in lost export opportunities due to aflatoxins.

It will also have a huge impact on the economy in terms of preventing human diseases (mainly cancer) and increasing the production of high-quality milk and eggs.

The budget allocates P1.878 trillion to deepen agriculture and industrialization with a special focus on commercialization and value addition.

Although this is a significant investment, the scale of the challenges in agriculture requires even greater expenditure on research and development. NARO research on the genetic development of value chains for livestock, fish, crops, forestry and cross-sectional areas is essential to improve product quality and yields.

Additional funding would enable more comprehensive research and faster implementation of findings, increasing the competitiveness of Ugandan agricultural products in regional and international markets.

To significantly increase fish exports, NARO has developed a fish smoking oven that processes high-quality smoked fish by reducing carcinogenic compounds in our smoked fish from 40,000 ppb to 0.88 ppb, well below the maximum limit of 2 ppb set by international markets such as EU and USA.

Agricultural mechanization is another cornerstone of increasing productivity. The budget includes the purchase and distribution of 240 tractors and additional walk-behind tractors, which is a step in the right direction.

It is also important to innovate and adapt mechanization solutions that meet the unique needs of Ugandan farmers. For example, NARO has developed eleven (11) agricultural machinery prototypes, including: a hydraulic piston pump, a rice thresher, corn shellers, a feed chopper and a food-grade cassava chipper, as more efficient and affordable mechanization technologies compared to the basic methods currently used by most farmers.

We invite private sector players to submit prototypes for mass production.
Ensuring access to high-quality seeds is crucial to achieving high yields and food security. Given the economic importance that many Ugandan communities attach to maize, NARO has released two new maize varieties: MAIZE 63 Vita with a high grain yield of 7.0 to 7.8 tons per hectare and MAIZE 64STR, resistant to striga and yielding 6.5 to 7.5 tons per hectare in Striga-affected areas.

This resulted in a 35% increase in corn production, from 3.5 million metric tons in the 2020/21 financial year to 4.7 million metric tons in the 2022/23 financial year, and a 91% increase in the value of corn exports, from $95.18 million (165,491 metric tons). in the 2020/21 financial year to USD 188.2 million (190,573 metric tons) in the 2022/23 financial year.

NARO has also released two new rice varieties (Rice WDR 73 and Rice KF 20039) that yield 8-10 tons per hectare compared to traditional varieties that yield 5 tons per hectare. These new varieties are aromatic and very liked by consumers.

Additionally, two new varieties of sweet potatoes (NAROSPOT 6 and NAROSPOT 7) were introduced to the market, versatile in both the food and confectionery industries. These potatoes, suitable for baking bread and cakes, can reduce wheat consumption by up to 60%.

NARO’s extensive research into resistant, high-yielding seed varieties adapted to local conditions has also enabled community groups to become seed multipliers, strongly involving women and girls.

The income generated has significantly improved the living conditions of group members at the household level.

Research has also expanded the range of value-added products from coffee and cocoa, developing by-products such as body lotions, face and body scrubs, yogurts and creams.

The coffee face and body scrub was taken over by Movit Products Limited for mass production.

Before the pandemic, several bodies of water were infested with invasive weeds such as cariba weed and water hyacinth, hampering fishing, water transportation and recreation and threatening electricity generation.

NARO scientists have implemented biological control measures to sustainably combat these scourges, reducing weed levels from over 90% to less than 10% in Lakes Kyoga, Kwania and Nakuwa. Efforts are underway to address infestations on Lake Victoria.

This scale of innovation has the potential to increase productivity, ensure food security and improve the competitiveness of Ugandan agricultural products, not to mention the accompanying creation of employment opportunities.

By increasing financial support for agricultural research, the government can catalyze the economic transformation envisioned by ambitious budget targets.

The author is director of communications at the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO).