• Inputs are already going into the districts.
• This year the target is still around 1 million farmers out of the 2 million smallholder farmers.
• Government must put aside allocation when they are dealing with the national budget.
An Agriculture Expert has urged government to continue with the early delivery of farming inputs in order to give farmers ample time to prepare for the next farming season.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Dr. Frank Kayula said farming inputs have already started going into the districts, noting that this year, government is still targeting to reach 1 million farmers out of the 2 million existing small holder farmers in the country.
Dr. Kayula however stated that government should consider reducing the number of beneficiary farmers so as to increase the amount of inputs being given to them, to help them make more money and graduate.
“This year we have a situation where inputs are already going into the districts and that’s good enough. We should be having this always and we have given them a very score for that. This year the target is still around 1 million farmers out of the 2 million smallholder farmers we are having in the country. That’s half but that’s still okay,” Dr. Kayula said.
He noted that it is currently very difficult to graduate because they have limited production capacity.
“We could have a situation where we reduce on the number of farmers so that we increase on what we are giving them, they make more money and graduate. It becomes easier for them to graduate when they have a bigger space for them to produce. Right now it is difficult for the farmers to graduate. When you go out in the field, you will feel sympathetic for them,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kayula stressed the need for government to increase the amount of money allocated to the agriculture sector to 10 percent as they deal with the national budget.
“We would like Government to hammer the bull’s eye by getting information from research. Research as a lot of output that gives us direction that if we went into this area we will perform better then they will perform very well.”
“But we will also require that government puts aside allocation when they are dealing with the national budget, even as much as 10% which is the recommended one by Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework all over Africa that is sufficient but we are not reaching that, we keep on going down in terms of the allocation to agriculture. Probably when we go that direction, we will say yes government is doing beyond half,” he stated.