Agricultural and Food Policy News

President Museveni warns against increasing land fragmentation.
New Vision
President Museveni has warned that the increasing land fragmentation if not checked, will adversely affect food production in the future, and called on leaders to mobilize communities against the practice. "Do not allow land fragmentation. Teach people not to divide the land physically but instead divide what comes out of the land. Form a family company.

Maize farmers to earn more from regional market
Daily Monitor
Maize farmers are yet to record increased revenue as they race for a larger share of the region’s growing market. The crop that has been rated the highest cereal export earner in Uganda has sustained the top position for the last four years and still counting—Uganda Export Promotion Board confirms. Maize, in the 2010 financial year registered an improvement in export returns by $9 million (Shs20 billion), from $29 million (Shs67 billion) in 2009 to $38 million (Shs8 8billion) in 2010, a report from UEPB has shown.

Dealers stock up as farmers rush for seeds
East African Business Week
With the onset of the rains that spread to most parts of the country, farmers are busy shopping for seeds and other planting materials. This is the reason seed companies and dealers around Kampala have stocked in good quantities. Mr Hassan Mukoye of Keith Associates in the heart of Kampala city says they have stocked more than the usual quantities since the planting season has just started.

Country to become clean development mechanism hub
SciDev.Net
Uganda is set to become a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Hub over the next three years, with financial assistance from Belgium. The Belgian Development Agency is investing US$2.6 million in the scheme, which will be overseen by the designated national authority - the Climate Change Unit (CCU) at the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment. Private companies can register to receive training in monitoring, validation, verification and how to negotiate carbon credit transactions under the CDM. Companies with the potential to earn carbon credits include many in the domestic sector: cooking stoves, domestic biogas and green charcoal — a household fuel produced from agricultural waste.

Netherlands donates Shs 300bn for food, justice
The Observer
The Netherlands has earmarked a Shs 300bn package to boost food security and the justice system in Uganda over the next four years. The Netherlands' Ambassador, Jeroen Verheul, unveiled details of the country's Multi -Annual Strategic Plan 2012-15 for Uganda in Kampala last Thursday. The Netherlands will invest in improving the performance of small market-oriented farmers engaged in food production. There will be focus on several selected commodities, such as livestock, potatoes, rice and cassava. It will also target the enabling environment for agribusiness, which includes investments in the area of skills development and regional trade. The embassy will broker Dutch and Ugandan trade and investments in the area of agribusiness.

African Development Bank approves US$63M for research initiative
Africa Science News Service
The African Development Bank has approved a US$ 63.24 million fund package for the implementation of a 5-year project dubbed “Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa” aimed at enhancing the productivity and income derived from cassava, maize, rice, and wheat. Uganda is among the countries to benefit from the project. It will be co-implemented by three Africa-based international agricultural research centers: the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Africa Rice Center, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. IITA is the executing agency.

African researchers 'struggle' to establish careers
SciDev.Net
Many African science graduates struggle to establish careers after leaving university as they do not receive enough assistance to define their research agendas and develop professionally, says a joint report by the British Academy and the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Foundations for the Future: Supporting the Early Careers of African Researchers. Instead, post-doctorate graduates working as 'junior lecturers' in African universities are often overloaded with teaching and administrative duties, and have to pursue research and writing academic papers in their spare time.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance IFPRI-KampalaCommunication@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Yield effects of tissue culture bananas in Kenya: Accounting for selection bias and the role of complementary inputs
NS Kabunga, T Dubois and M Qaim, Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2012
We analyse yield effects of tissue culture (TC) banana technology in the Kenyan small farm sector, using recent survey data and an endogenous switching regression approach. TC banana plantlets, which are free from pests and diseases, have been introduced in East Africa since the late 1990s. Although field experiments show significant yield advantages over traditional banana suckers, a rigorous assessment of impacts in farmers’ fields is still outstanding. A comparison of mean yield levels between TC adopters and non-adopters in our sample shows no significant difference. However, we find evidence of negative selection bias, indicating that farmers with lower than average yields are more likely to adopt TC. Controlling for this bias results in a positive and significant TC net yield gain of 7%. We also find that TC technology is more knowledge intensive and more responsive to irrigation than traditional bananas. Simulations show that improving access to irrigation could lift TC productivity gains to above 20%. The analytical approach developed and applied here and the finding of negative selection bias may also be relevant for the evaluation of other agricultural technologies.

Food access and diet quality independently predict nutritional status among people living with HIV in Uganda
S Kadiyala & R Rawat. Public Health Nutrition. 2012
Although undernutrition is recognized as a risk factor for mortality among people living with HIV, even among those initiating antiretroviral therapy, few studies have explored the underlying determinants of undernutrition. The objectives of the present study were to: (i) examine the independent association between household food security, individual diet quality and nutritional status; and (ii) determine if any association between food security and nutritional status is mediated through diet quality. Food security and diet quality were measured using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and the Individual Dietary Diversity Score (IDDS), respectively. Multivariate regression results demonstrated that HFIAS and IDDS independently predict BMI and mid upper-arm circumference. Our results provide an empirical basis for focused efforts on improving food access and diet quality among PLWHIV.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

NAADS to be reviewed
The Observer
The National Agricultural Advisory Services is to undergo another review in a bid to make it more efficient to farmers. Mwalimu Musheshe, NAADS chairman board of directors, said the key feature in the review is the need to help individual farmers. This is key to service delivery. Henceforth, Musheshe says, the focus will be placed more on marketing and value addition. Previously, NAADS mainly focused on production.

Uganda gets Shs 6bn for climate change
The Observer
The two-million Euro (Shs 6bn) project dubbed the ‘Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Capacity Building Project’ mainly aims at building the capacity of Ugandans to mitigate and adapt to climate change. CDM, created as part of the 1997 Kyoto protocol, allows rich countries to meet part of their emissions reduction targets by funding emission reduction projects in developing countries and assisting the latter to attain sustainable development. The three-year project aims at enabling Uganda cut her greenhouse gas emissions and achieve sustainable development.

Uganda to export tax free goods to China
Daily Monitor
China is cementing its foot print in the country by allowing the export of Ugandan goods into its markets without duties and tariffs, the country’s envoy to Uganda has said. Amb. At the end of 2011, Ugandan exports to China totalled $40 million (Shs84 billion), while China's exports to Uganda amounted to $359 million (Shs861 billion). Uganda exports mainly commodities to China, including coffee, hides and skins, arts and crafts.

Bureaucracy hurting regional trade, says market report
Business Daily Africa
Strict control of the movement of food items across borders is undermining efforts by East African countries to even out regional trade and build a monetary union. The high quality thresholds, tedious documentation and open corruption at official border crossing points are blocking movement of cheap foodstuff from surplus areas to deficit regions. “The traders opt for informal routes to pass their commodities through borders without delay and procedures that are likely to attract additional charges,” says the latest market report prepared by East African Grain Council.

TZ farmers suffer losses as maize prices drop
The East African
The move by Tanzania to ban maize exports to the region has left farmers and crop traders nursing huge losses as the domestic price of the commodity tumbles. Farmers are receiving much less for their harvest compared with what they were fetching from the foreign market before the ban mid last year.

Index launched to empower women and fight hunger
Relief Web
A significant new breakthrough in the measurement of women's empowerment in developing countries was launched earlier this week. The "Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index" (WEAI) is the first measure to directly capture women's empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector. It uses five criteria to measure the empowerment of developing country women in agriculture, and in their own households. Pilot programmes in Bangladesh, Guatemala and Uganda studied how engaged women were in decision-making about agricultural production, what sort of access they had to resources and how involved they were in resource-related decision-making; the extent to which they controlled how income was used; whether they were able to have a leadership role in the community; and how they used their time.
Also see http://www.ifpri.org/pressroom/briefing/women-s-empowerment-agriculture-index.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

A Food Composition Table for Central and Eastern Uganda.
C Hotz, A Lubowa, C Sison, M Moursi, C Loechl. HarvestPlus Technical Monograph Series 9. 2012
During a HarvestPlus project to disseminate orange-fleshed sweet potato in Uganda and Mozambique, nutritionists found that there was no reliable tool for estimating food intakes and developed a food composition table for Uganda. They are now sharing this FCT in hopes that other researchers will benefit from this new resource. In addition to a documented FCT, we also present information and tables on two related datasets. The first is a table of gram-weight conversion factors to aid in the quantification of portion sizes of foods consumed from dietary data collected by recall. The second is a set of standard recipes for commonly consumed composite dishes in the region.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Milk prices increase as demand exceeds supply
Daily Monitor
Ugandans should prepare to part with some extra money to buy a litre of milk and its products as prices shoot up due to increasing demand that has exceeded supply. Currently, raw milk prices have increased from Shs1200 per litre in January to Shs1300 per litre at some retail outlets in central and northern Uganda.

Uganda sorghum farmers to supply Uganda Breweries
East African Business Week
Uganda Breweries Limited has launched a recruitment programme for large scale sorghum farmers in Kapchorwa. This follows successful large scale sorghum growing trials carried out in Uganda’s Sebei region in 2011 as part of UBL's local raw material sourcing programme. The programme will initially target over 5000 acres.

MPs tell scientists to petition House over biotech Bill
Daily Monitor
Legislators have advised scientists and Ugandans endeavouring to advance biotechnology science for national development to seek Parliament’s support in fast-tracking the biotechnology and biosafety law. Speaking at workshop at National Crops Resource Research Institute, Namulonge, on Saturday, Mr Robert Ssebunya, the Kyadondo South MP, said it is necessary to involve MPs in accelerating the formulation of the law, which has stayed at drafting level for over nine years.

Towards a pro-poor maize policy in Kenya
IRINnews.org
Almost all Kenyans eat maize - an average of almost 100kg each a year - but they pay a lot more for the staple than many of their regional neighbours. The poorest Kenyans now spend over a quarter of their income on the cereal. High and volatile prices are especially hard on the poor, including the 98 percent of farmers in Kenya who, according to the World Bank, buy more maize than they sell.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@CGIAR.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Ex-post impact assessment review of the Regional Network on AIDS, Livelihoods, and Food Security (RENEWAL)
T Frankenberger & S Nelson – IFPRI 2011
The Regional Network on AIDS, Livelihoods, and Food Security (RENEWAL) was launched in 2001 and was operational in Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and South Africa through most of 2011. RENEWAL is a “network of networks” comprised of national networks of food and nutrition-relevant organizations, along with partners in AIDS and public health practitioners. Its overarching goal is to provide evidence-based research on the linkages between HIV, food security, and nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa that would inform responses to prevent or mitigate the impact and consequences of AIDS.. RENEWAL’s strategic approach involved the three core pillars of capacity strengthening, policy communications, and action research, and the synergies resulting from their interactions. This report assesses the impact of RENEWAL activities from 2000 to 2010 and is based on a review of products resulting from RENEWAL activities (such as books, policy briefs, workshop summaries, reports, and discussion papers), stakeholder perceptions of RENEWAL products and activities, and national policy or programming changes resulting from RENEWAL-supported action research, capacity strengthening efforts, and policy communications.

Is cassava the answer to African climate change adaptation?
A Jarvis, J Ramirez-Villegas, BV Herrera Campo & C Navarro-Racines- Tropical Plant Biology, 2012
This paper examines the impacts of climate change on cassava production in Africa, and questions whether cassava can play an important role in climate change adaptation. First, we examine the impacts that climate change will likely have on cassava itself, and on other important staple food crops for Africa including maize, millets, sorghum, banana, and beans based on projections to 2030. Results indicate that cassava is actually positively impacted in many areas of Africa, with −3.7% to +17.5% changes in climate suitability across the continent. Conversely, for other major food staples, we found that they are all projected to experience negative impacts. The paper concludes that cassava is potentially highly resilient to future climatic changes and could provide Africa with options for adaptation whilst other major food staples face challenges.

Knowledge transfer: the role of community extension in increasing food security
K Wellard - Self Help Africa, 2011
The study explores the role community extension approaches play in enabling farmers to be food secure. Key questions examined are:

• What is good practice in community extension for agriculture?
• What is the impact of community extension on food security for smallholder farmers?
• What is the potential for scale up and policy influence?

The research combined quantitative and qualitative methods, including desk study, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, stakeholder workshop and household interviews in Ghana, Uganda and Malawi.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

NAADS earmarks sh3b for youth program in Buganda
New Vision
About sh3bn has been earmarked to be spent on the implementation of a special youth programme in 24 districts of Buganda sub-region, a NAADS top official has said. According to Dr. Aggrey Kyobuguzi, the agricultural advisory officer at the NAADS secretariat, the support to the youth was a Presidential directive to NAADS secretariat.

Kenya eyes GM crops to ensure food security
Daily Nation
Kenya is one of the four African countries expected to adopt commercial farming of biotechnology crops as part of efforts to alleviate hunger in the next five years. Other countries tipped to catch up with the early pacesetters of biotechnology in Africa are Uganda and Nigeria, which have also eased regulatory bottlenecks and stepped up research.

Five grants awarded for basic research to enable agricultural development
Kansas City infoZine
The National Science Foundation in the US has awarded five grants under the Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) program. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (Colombia) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (Uganda) will exploit a recently developed, novel centromere engineering strategy to develop double haploids in banana and cassava. Other research being funded by the BREAD program will look at cassava mosaic disease in Uganda and Tanzania.

Customs bloc pays off with more Kenyan exports to Tanzania and fewer to Uganda
Business Daily Africa
Kenyan businesses have started reaping dividends from the removal of restrictions on goods entering Tanzania with exports to East Africa’s second largest economy overtaking those to the UK and Uganda for the first time in a decade. Uganda — which has been the top buyer of Kenyan goods since 1999 — saw its Kenyan imports shrink by 27.2 per cent over the same period to Sh3.5 billion.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Reshaping agriculture for nutrition and health
S. Fan and R. Pandya-Lorch, eds. IFPRI. 2012.
The fundamental purpose of agriculture is not just to produce food and raw materials, but also to grow healthy, well-nourished people. It is time for agriculture, nutrition, and health to join forces in pursuit of the common goal of improving human well-being. In this book, leading experts, practitioners, and policymakers explore the links among agriculture, nutrition, and health and identify ways to strengthen related policies and programs. The chapters were originally commissioned as background papers or policy briefs for the conference “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health,” facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute’s 2020 Vision Initiative in New Delhi, India, in February 2011.
Three of the chapters are by Uganda-based authors:
Chapter 17: Cross-sectoral coordination in the public sector: A challenge to leveraging agriculture for improving nutrition and health, by Todd Benson
Chapter 18: Accelerating national policymaking across sectors to enhance nutrition, by Robert K. N. Mwadime
Chapter 19: Advocacy to reduce malnutrition in Uganda: Some lessons for sub-Saharan Africa, by Brenda Shenute Namugumya

Working multisectorally in nutrition - Principles, practices, and case studies
J. Garrett & M. Natalicchio, eds. IFPRI. 2011
Improving nutrition in developing nations is likely to require a multisectoral approach that involves a variety of ministries and organizations addressing particular aspects of the problem. Despite the promise of such multisectoral efforts, relatively little research has been done on how such efforts can be made effective. This book identifies common characteristics that likely contributed to programs’ achievements. Key factors were inspiration and support from political leaders and technical staff; effective management approaches combined with operational flexibility; and processes that brought together a wide range of stakeholders and partners to share a common vision and provide them with a clear sense of how the benefits of participation would outweigh the costs. The lessons offered in this book can be used to inform and orient policymakers, practitioners, and advocates involved in multisectoral work, not only in combating malnutrition but also, more broadly, in engaging in cross-sectoral and interagency endeavors as a whole.

Assessing the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change in eastern Africa: overview
M Waithaka, T Thomas, M Kyotalimye & G Nelson. ASARECA & IFPRI. 2011.
This monograph considers potential impacts of climate change adaptation on agriculture in ten countries in eastern and central Africa. These countries are highly vulnerable to climate primarily due to their overreliance on rainfed agriculture, high population growth rates that averages 3.7% and endemic poverty that affects more than 50% of the population. Climate change predictions point to increased rainfall and a rise in minimum temperatures. Rainfall is also predicted to be more erratic and violent, further disrupting predominantly rain fed agricultural production systems with coffee predicted to be the most affected. These changes point to possible expansion in the crop production zones for staple crops and livestock. The merits of this change include enhancement of the food security of communities in the new production areas although there are also likely adverse impacts in the sense that farm gate prices might collapse undermining household incomes and climate change resilience.

Unleashing the potential of sweet potato to combat poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
JW Low - Acta Horticulturae, 2011
Sweet potato, covering 3.4 million ha with an estimated production of 14.1 million tons in 2009, is one of three widely grown root and tuber crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Predominantly grown in small plots, it is known as a food for the poor, grown mainly by women. While the area planted to maize in SSA is 9 times greater than to sweet potato, the latter is expanding faster than any other major food crop in SSA.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Farmers want Parliament to probe CDO over cotton prices
Daily Monitor
Stakeholders in the cotton sector have asked Parliament to investigate how indicative cotton prices and levies are set by the cotton authority to the detriment of farmers. The decision by farmers, ginners and legislators from cotton growing areas were prompted by a submission by Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) and ginners to indicate that cotton prices will reduce from Shs1,600 to Shs1,000 per kilogramme countrywide for this year’s harvest.

Honey exports down despite good quality
Daily Monitor
Honey producers’ earnings are growing despite a slide in foreign demand now that many Ugandans are turning to honey as a substitute for sugar. However, Uganda’s honey producers are yet to tap bonuses enjoyed in export trade as export volumes remain low, despite the commodity's demand on the international market due to its good quality.

Price monitoring software may help stabilise food prices
Scidev.net
Price-monitoring computer software that will produce monthly updates of staple food prices is being developed for East and Central African countries. The tool is under development at ASARECA, whose headquarters are in Uganda. It is expected to increase competition and resilience to price volatility, and will begin with the monitoring of prices of maize, the major regional staple food. Michael Waithaka, manager of the Policy Analysis and Advocacy Programme at ASARECA, told SciDev.Net: "We will be giving monthly updates of food prices and balances. We will also be trying out a forecasting model, so that we can be more prepared, but this may take some time to adapt adequately."

West Nile: Hope for apple production to alleviate poverty
FreshPlaza
It has long been popularly believed that it is not possible to grow apples commercially in the West Nile Region. Trials have indicated that the area, with a mainly tropical climate and one rainy season, is just not a viable place for the fruit. However, recent research seems to suggest otherwise. Research tests on apple growing at Abi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (ZARDI) in the highland areas of Zombo District are looking promising.

Kenya to import maize
Reuters
Kenya, in a bid to ensure the country's food security, said it planned to import three quarters of a million 90-kg bags of maize by June from regional and international markets to bolster supplies despite bigger harvests following recent good rains.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Impact of Uganda’s National Agricultural Advisory Services Program
S Benin; E Nkonya; G Okecho; et al. IFPRI Research Monograph 175. 2011
In Uganda, agricultural extension has been hotly debated since the implementation of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program in 2001. Conceived as a demand-driven approach and largely publicly funded with services provided by the private sector, the NAADS program targets the development and use of farmer institutions. Now that the first phase of the program has ended, this study rigorously assesses the outcomes and impacts obtained thus far, in order to help inform the current second phase and offer lessons for others implementing or planning to implement demand-driven agricultural advisory services in developing countries. The findings presented here are useful to policymakers of central and local governments, farmer groups, advisory service providers, donors, and others seeking to improve agricultural extension services in Uganda and elsewhere. Program evaluators and policy analysts will find the methods instructive.

Innovation systems and technical efficiency in developing-country agriculture
DK Mekonnen, DJ Spielman & EG Fonsah. 2012. Paper presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2012, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
The paper uses a stochastic frontier analysis of production functions to estimate the level of technical efficiency in agriculture for a panel of 29 developing countries in Africa and Asia between 1994 and 2000. In addition, the paper examines how different components of an agricultural innovation system interact to determine the estimated technical inefficiencies. The results suggest that there is room for significant increases of production through reallocations of existing resources. Despite significant variation among countries, these results also indicate quite a number of least developed countries have high mean efficiency scores, implying a need to focus on investment that pushes the production frontier outward in these countries. Several measures of agricultural R&D achievement and intensity, along with educational enrolment, are found to enhance agricultural efficiency.

Mixed messages on prices and food security
J Swinnen & P Squicciarini. 2012. Science
Price increases have mixed effects on poverty and hunger: They increase the cost of food for consumers but increase incomes of farmers, who represent the bulk of the world's poor. Net effects will differ depending on whether poor households or countries buy or import, or sell or export food. These nuances are too often absent in public debate, to the detriment of policy-making. Moreover, the arguments put forward today, that high food prices generally hurt the poor, are in contrast with those put forward a few years ago, that low food prices were hurting the poor.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Rural women's banks ease tough times
Inter Press Service
For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds and many cannot afford the interest rates charged by commercial banks. But six women-led rural banks have begun changing the lives of women in rural Uganda, easing their access to credit and enabling them to start small businesses and improve their food security.

Ugandan firms awarded for quality coffee
Daily Monitor
Two Ugandan coffee firms have scooped awards for trading quality coffee at the 2012 National Taste of Harvest Competition, an annual event organised to promote the crop. The firms, National Union of Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprise (Nucafe) won four of the five awards that were contested for by firms dealing in Robusta coffee, while Kawacom emerged best in Arabica coffee.

Uganda to export silk to Iran
New Vision
Uganda is set to start exporting the silk worm to Iran. MA Mousavi, the chairman of Iran-Uganda Establishments, said the production of silk from the 1,000-hectare farm in Kisozi, Gomba district is set to start next month. “Now is the time to reap. The investment is worth $9m (about sh27b),” he said. “Once we start, we shall be producing at least 1,500 tonnes for exportation to Iran.” Mousavi said about 5,000 jobs will be created once production kicks off.

Farmers face double cassava disease strike
Daily Monitor
The spread of the two viral diseases in the Kibuku District is causing major production losses and, in the most severely affected district of Kibuku, these likely to cause cute food shortage, leaving about 175000 people in fear of the looming famine that will sooner or later is also to strike because of the low productivity of the cassava. "We have registered the outbreak of cassava mosaic, caused by mosaic Gemini viruses that are transmitted through infected planting stems as well as whitefly vector. But we have also advised our people to uproot the planted cassava as a step to control further spread of the diseases," the district production officer Dr Nyiro said.

Strategic Partnerships to Build African Scientific Capacity for Agriculture
In light of the challenges to global agriculture and commitments to renew emphasis on agriculture research and build scientific capacity within African institutions, the Center for Strategic and International Studies formed a roundtable of U.S. and African scientists, including several from Uganda. The aim was to discuss how best to promote exchange on agricultural science. The report here provides an overview of agricultural science cooperation within the African research system; the university system; and the role of partnerships with the private sector.
The conclusions point to several areas of opportunity moving forward:

• Key problems and challenges in African climate and soil conditions require focused, in-situ attention, research, and trials; research must be driven by pragmatism and the potential for impact.
• Building long-term indigenous African research capacities should be a consistent and prominent element of U.S.-African partnerships.
• Research should be coordinated across the range of national, sub-regional, and regional institutions, to support individual and institutional capacities; and African universities should be more fully engaged in national agricultural planning.
• Private-sector partnerships should be encouraged to provide experience in advanced research facilities, and to leverage African researcher knowledge of specific research and agricultural challenges.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Agricultural sector budgetary allocations in Uganda
SK Tibaidhukira. Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation, 2011
The Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation (EAFF) commissioned a study to explore the details behind government’s budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector in Uganda. This study analyzed the trends in allocation, the processes behind the allocation and explored spaces for engagement of producer organizations in these processes.
In order to realise increased budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector in Uganda, the following are recommended; (i) Non-state actors, especially producer organisations need to internalize and conceptualize the various policies and plans in the sector as well as the budget process to meaningfully engage government to increase budgetary allocation to the sector (ii) Producer organizations need to form a coalition and demand the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda to build their capacity to exploit spaces and opportunities for engagement in the budgetary processes and government development programmes.

False promise or false premise? Using tourism revenue sharing to promote conservation and poverty reduction in Uganda
DM Tumusiime, P Vedeld - Conservation and Society, 2012
Tourism and the sharing of the associated revenues with local people have been increasingly fronted as key instruments for maintaining protected areas (PAs) globally. This paper focuses on a tourism revenue sharing scheme employed in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, involving rural farmers. We find that the scheme faces difficulties in integrating with the existing local historical, socio-economic, and institutional landscapes. Similar experiences from other cases suggest that these challenges are generic, and relate to lack of real local participation; an insignificant scale of economic returns to local people relative to costs; inept institutions in charge of planning, managing and evaluation efforts; and an institutional complexity that constrains most activities. The overall findings indicate that problems are not with tourism revenue sharing as an ambition, but with the difficulties encountered in putting it into practice.

Socio-economic evaluation of improved forage technologies in smallholder dairy cattle farming systems in Uganda.
A Turinawe, J Mugisha - Journal of Agricultural Science, 2011
Smallholder dairy cattle producers in Uganda face major production constraints including inadequate and poor quality feeds. Forage technologies have been widely recommended to alleviate this problem. This study aimed at comparing profitability of dairy cattle enterprises using improved forage technologies (IFTs) with those using local technologies, and determining factors affecting the use of IFTs among smallholder dairy farmers. Probit model results indicated that profitability of technology influenced the decision to use IFT when interacted with improved cattle breed. The decision to use IFTs had a positive significant (p<0.1) relationship with profitability of dairy cattle enterprises.

Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health
S Fan & R Pandya-Lorch. IFPRI
The book is a compilation of peer-reviewed background papers and briefs commissioned by IFPRI for the international conference “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health,” which took place in New Delhi in February 2011. It is intended to identify knowledge gaps, foster new thinking, and stimulate concrete actions on leveraging agriculture for improving nutrition and health. It is meant to serve a variety of audiences, from scholars, academics, students, and researchers, to practitioners working on the ground, to decision makers devising policies that successfully connect agriculture, nutrition, and health at the local, regional, and global levels.
This is a preview chapter from Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. The full book will be available in February 2012 via www.ifpri.org.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Mobile phone technology improving farmer's fortunes
Daily Monitor
In a world becoming increasingly tech savvy, even rural farmers in a remote, mountainous and hard to reach area such as Kabale can use technology to solve their immediate farm needs. For the farmers in the sub-counties of Bufundi and Bubare in Kabale district, the communication device has solved their livelihood problems from the day it replaced the extension worker in providing timely and relevant farm information on markets, fertiliser application, right plant spacing, timely planting, diseases like potato blight and other important farm related information, to farmers in this area.

No active insurance scheme for agricultural sector
Daily Monitor
Farmers will have to incur more losses caused by climate related conditions since there is no active insurance scheme for the agricultural sector, a new study has revealed. “This is partly due to a lack of technical expertise and distribution capacity of insurers to develop and service agricultural insurance,” Mr John Ariko, a consultant with Friends Consult limited - a firm that conducted the study said. Statistics show that 99 per cent of Uganda's agriculture is rain fed, which makes it more vulnerable to hostile climatic conditions.

Agricultural chemicals hurting kids
The Observer
A 2006 UNICEF report estimates that 3.3 million children worldwide work in the agricultural sector. Of these, 39% are employed in rice, 54% in tobacco, 48% coffee and 40% in tea enterprises. But perhaps the most worrying statistic is that 17% of working children are exposed to chemical hazards especially in the tobacco enterprise. In rural areas, children work under deplorable hazardous conditions that are detrimental to their physical, mental and social well-being.

Dairy sector riding on growing market
Daily Monitor
Much as Uganda’s dairy sector has not grown in leaps and bounds, a change of events in the past years seems to be driving it to the right direction. The sector is delivering according to the industry’s projections. Last year, the sector registered impressive performance with all the different regions of Uganda having significant contribution to the total annual milk output. The total milk production by the end of 2011 stood between 1.6 billion to 1.8 billion litres, a figure which more than doubled the quantity that was produced 10 years ago.

Disease-resistant, high-yielding cassava varieties released in Tanzania
Newstime Africa
Four new high-yielding cassava varieties that are tolerant to the deadly Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and resistant to the equally devastating Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD), were last week officially released in Tanzania, providing a ray of hope to the millions of small-scale farmers who depend on the crop for their food and income in sub-Saharan Africa. The two diseases have been spreading rapidly through the Great Lakes countries of eastern Africa, nearly reaching epidemic proportions as all the varieties grown by farmers are susceptible.

Progress towards a food-secure Africa
IPS
A growing number of African countries are making significant progress towards eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and South Africa are some of the countries that have made tremendous achievements towards achieving these goals. This has been reflected in a hunger-free score card geared towards measuring food security in Africa by ActionAid International and ACORD, the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Peasantry struggles and agriculture modernisation in Uganda: The failed attempt at agriculture transformation for development
SP Asiimwe; MSc Research Paper. Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. 2011.
Uganda embarked on an agricultural transformation programme that aimed at modernising agriculture with emphasis on liberalising agriculture markets, reducing trade barriers and promoting traditional and non-traditional exports. Based on the rationale of the trade for development approach, the transformation result is expected to be a modern agricultural system where farm productivity is high due to the employment of modern agriculture technologies, and incomes and employment levels both rural and urban improve. However, the shift within the agricultural system, from subsistence to entrepreneurial capitalist agricultural production has had adverse effects on food availability and the capacity of the rural economy to progress. The increase in non-traditional exports of which the majority are food crops has resulted in low food supply in the local markets pushing food prices high and gradually increasing the costs of living.

International Scientific Symposium on Food & Nutrition Security Information
17-19 January 2012; FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy
This recent conference examined emerging trends in measuring food and nutrition security information and linking it more closely to decision-making, including:

• improving measurement tools;
• using impact and cost-effectiveness studies to improve policies and programmes;
• increasing dialogue between information analysts and decision-makers; and
• working with coalitions and knowledge brokers to strengthen links between information generation and effective decision-making.

Several presentations were made using Uganda case-studies, including the following papers:

• Hunger evaluation in Uganda is valid for assessing household food insecurity;
• Analyzing nutritional impacts of price and income related shocks in Malawi and Uganda;
• Validating the food consumption score and other food security indicators using LSMS surveys
• Generating evidence on individuals’ experience of food insecurity and vulnerability; and
• Food security analysis through the human development and capability approach: a proposal for field research and applications in developing countries.

Abstracts of these and other papers can be found in http://www.foodsec.org/fileadmin/user_upload/eufao-fsi4dm/docs/iss-abstract-book.pdf

Short and long-run impacts of food price changes on poverty
M Ivanic & W Martin- World Bank 2011
There is now considerable evidence that rapid increases in food prices raise poverty in most developing countries. Key reasons for this are that the poor spend large share of their incomes on food, and that many poor farmers are net buyers of food. However, there are reasons to suspect that high food prices may be less harmful for the poor in the longer run as producers and consumers adjust to higher agricultural prices. We evaluate short and long-term consequences of increased food price changes on poverty. We find that high food prices have sharply adverse impacts on poverty in the short run, but much smaller impacts in the long run. However, bringing down food prices through raising productivity growth has particularly large favourable impacts on poverty by lowering the costs of food to consumers, raising agricultural incomes, and increasing wage rates for unskilled labour.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Economic hardships contract agriculture in 2011
Daily Monitor
Just as predicted, 2011 was tough for the agriculture sector as hard-hitting economic conditions bedevilling Uganda slowed down investments, production and agro exports. Narrowed productivity, high inflation, and the weak shilling narrowed agriculture investments and profitability. Mr Daniel Karibwije, of the Uganda Export Promotions Board, said “Almost every sector has experienced tough times as costs of production escalated in the year.” However, as the shilling stabilises and inflation relaxes Mr Karibwije predicts a better trend this year. He says, “There is some hope since the government is determined to work on rectifying the current volatilities.”

'International pay' promise for Ugandan scientists
SciDev.Net
President Museveni has promised again to raise scientists' salaries to near international levels. Museveni made the declaration during a speech at Makerere University at the end of last year (24 November). He said that science and technology were essential to raise Africa from poverty and urged Ugandan scientists not to be lured to Europe and North America. "Scientists in Uganda should be remunerated to near international standards. And this will be done."

Deforestation and destruction of wetlands heats up Kabale
Daily Monitor
The average highest temperature in Kabale has risen to 24 degrees Celsius-almost double the global average-while the average lowest has risen to 12 degrees Celsius. The district natural resource management officer, Mr Paul Sabiiti, says climate change in the area is not peculiar because the current global climatic change, which is partly a result of increased carbon emissions due to increased industrialisation, has left many places warmer than before.

Harnessing ICT for smallholder development
NewsDay (Zimbabwe)
One of the prominent causes of poverty among smallholder producers has been the information gap. Without relevant information it is difficult to make profitable business decisions; hence, farmers do not know where to sell, prevailing prices or who is buying. In Uganda, the Grameen Foundation started the Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) Initiative which is building a self-sustaining, scalable network of rural information providers who use cellphones to help close critical information gaps facing poor, smallholder farmers.

Government starts breeding sterile tsetse flies
Daily Monitor
The new technology dubbed Sterile Insect Technic, will see entomologists collect an estimated 50,000 tsetse flies in various districts and have their germ cells killed before releasing them into the wilderness to mix with normal tsetse flies to end their era. “They mate with female tsetse flies but cannot fertilise their eggs, that will reduce their numbers with time and later get wiped out,” Mr H. Ssebagala, Entomologist in the Sustainable Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Free Areas (STATFA) project in the Agriculture Ministry said.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

A robust multi-dimensional poverty profile for Uganda
S Levine, J Muwonge & Y Maweki Batana. 2011. PMMA Working Paper
We compute a multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) for Uganda. Using household survey data we show how the incidence of multi-dimensional poverty has fallen in recent years and we use the decomposability features of the index to explain the drivers of reduction in multi-dimensional poverty. By exploiting a unique subsample of the integrated household survey programme in Uganda, which has not previously been analysed, we are also able to match the data-set used for the MPI with data used to compute the conventional estimates of monetary poverty. This enables a more robust assessment of the complementarities of the two types of poverty measures than has been previously possible.

Measuring poverty trends in Uganda with non-monetary indicators
L Daniels. 2011. Paper presented at Global Conference on Agricultural and Rural Household Statistics. Wye City Group. 9-11 Nov 2011. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Uganda has experienced high economic growth rates over the past decade, averaging 5.4 percent per year, while poverty rates have declined over 14 percent. However, conventional wisdom is that the benefits of poverty reduction have not been distributed equally. This paper seeks to examine poverty trends across Uganda from 1995 to 2010 by using non-monetary indicators based on household assets, housing characteristics, and household size and composition. The results confirm that the overall incidence of poverty has declined in Uganda over the past 15 years, but the rate varies across different regions and depending on the education of the head of the household. When compared to monetary measures of well-being, however, our measure of poverty based on non-monetary indicators has not declined as rapidly. We explore several alternative explanations for this discrepancy.

Use of scientific and technological evidence within the Parliament of Uganda
UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Parliament of Uganda, and the Ugandan National Academy of Sciences. 2011
This report provides an overview of how effectively the Ugandan Parliament has handled Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to date; suggests where there are gaps in Parliament's handling of STI; and possible options for addressing those gaps. Our survey of MPs indicates widespread enthusiasm for science and technology, and there is widespread willingness to improve the Ugandan Parliament's handling of STI. However, this positive attitude does not always translate into action: STI do not get much attention on the floor of the house, and debates are poorly attended. As such, there is a lack of clarity in the coordination of STI within parliament.

Circular migration, small-scale logging, and household livelihoods in Uganda
P Jagger, G Shively and A Arinaitwe. 2011. Population & Environment
We analyze logging by circular migrants in land constrained and population dense southwestern Uganda. We find that household endowments of land, labor, and capital are different for migrant logger and comparison group households. Above all, labor endowments appear to be driving decisions to participate in logging. We find support for two migration hypotheses: higher expected incomes and wages at destination; and relative deprivation at origin. We find strong evidence that migrant logging reduces income inequality in the home community.

Agricultural technology, crop income, and poverty alleviation in Uganda
M Kassie, B Shiferaw, G Muricho. 2011. World Development
This paper evaluates the ex post impact of adopting improved groundnut varieties on crop income and poverty in rural Uganda. We find that adopting improved groundnut varieties (technology) significantly increases crop income and reduces poverty. The positive and significant impact on crop income is consistent with the perceived role of new agricultural technologies in reducing rural poverty through increased farm household income. This study supports broader investment in agriculture research to address vital development challenges. Reaching the poor with better technologies however requires policy support for improving extension efforts, access to seeds and market outlets that simulate adoption.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Officials meet on food insecurity
Daily Monitor
Government has set up some recommendations to address high food prices that FAO says has reached its highest level in 30 years. Some of the recommendations include reducing taxes on fuel and value-added equipment, increasing taxes on imported foodstuffs and formulating food hygiene-related policies. The high-level government officials' meeting with key national and international stakeholders in agriculture that closed in Entebbe last week, also recommended that various countries should improve information accessibility across regions and strengthen market and trade information systems.

Farmers query cotton stabilisation fund
Daily Monitor
Cotton farmers are questioning the feasibility of government’s proposed cotton price stabilisation fund meant to regulate fluctuating prices. Mr Matias Osege, a prominent cotton farmer in Sere village in Tororo district, said the ginners deducted Shs600 per Kilogramme from last season’s sales to raise funds that would cover them when prices drop. However, he alleged that officials from the Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) told them that the money was used to buy tractors, seeds and other inputs.“No funds were saved for topping up.”

EAC import tariffs on maize are hurting Kenya, says World Bank
Business Daily Africa
Kenya is hurting from the East African Community (EAC) common market policy that restricts importation of duty-free maize, the World Bank has said. “Kenya is a food deficit country even in a bumper harvest year, yet the country levies import duty on food grains that are only suspended on an ad hoc basis in times of crisis. The East African Community customs union partners also impose export bans on cereals when Kenya experiences a food crisis,” said the World Bank report.

African conference calls for new agricultural universities
Scidev.net
East and Central African countries should establish a new generation of innovation-oriented agricultural universities that would help integrate research, training and extension services, a conference has agreed. The recommendation came at the close of the first General Assembly of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), held in Uganda last month. The new universities, said the recommendation, should be anchored in ministries of agriculture but linked with other ministries such as education, environment and transport. That would eradicate the disconnection between National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) and training in various faculties of agriculture at existing universities.

Poor losing out from large land deals - study
Alertnet
The global rush to acquire large amounts of land in developing countries has done more harm than good, especially to the poorest people who often lose access to land and resources essential to their livelihoods. The problem is fuelled by ineffective governance, corruption, a lack of transparency in decision-making and weak rights for local landholders, according to the study by the International Land Coalition (ILC). Scant economic protection for the rural poor compared with international investors, and the common belief that large-scale agriculture is the best way to achieve food security also contribute to the negative impacts, it added.

In Africa, using ants and termites to increase crop yields
Christian Science Monitor
Recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Sydney reveals that ants could also help farmers increase crop yields. The findings show that termites and ants improve soil fertility in dry lands by digging tunnels that allow plants greater access to water.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us by e-mail for assistance: IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Uganda: Mapping the distribution of commercial goods to the last mile
J Durgavich, B Nabirumbi, & S Ochaka. 2008. USAID | DELIVER project.
This older but recently released study report examines how a sample of common household goods are distributed in villages along the north shore of Lake Kwania in the Apac district. The study identified goods that were available at the village level and traced them back through their supply chains to manufacturers or distributors. While tracing the goods, the study examined the levels of inventory and the transportation strategies employed by the commercial sector to assure the availability of goods to remote, rural areas.

Tools for women's empowerment?: the case of the forage chopper for smallholder dairy farmers in Uganda
F Lubwama Kiyimba - 2011
Labour-saving tools have been advocated as an important means of increasing production and improving the quality of life of rural Africans. Women have been specifically targeted in the development and dissemination of such tools, with the aim of helping them reassign time from farming and domestic activities towards income generating activities. Engineers have always assumed that taking women into consideration in the development and dissemination processes of labour saving tools will guarantee their use and reduce women’s labour time in agriculture, but this has not been effectively achieved. The forage chopper is one such technology that was developed with the aim of reducing women’s labour burdens, and indeed empowering them, only to find out that realities of use are much more complex. With a technographic approach, focusing on a socially active labour saving tool, this research explored how technologies contribute to the empowerment of women.

Adoption and productivity impacts of biotechnology for orphan crops: The case of tissue culture bananas in Kenya
N Kabunga, T Dubois & M Qaim, Tropenag. 2011
The benefits of relatively knowledge-intensive technologies that require supplemental inputs are not well known in literature. Moreover, there are no known studies investigating technology impacts on perennial crops. Using the case of tissue culture (TC) bananas in Kenya, we assess whether there are differences in banana production functions between TC adopters and non-adopters using a simultaneous equations model with endogenous switching. We account for heterogeneity in adoption decisions and for unobservable characteristics of farmer households and their farms and then compare the expected banana yield under the actual and counterfactual scenarios. Because of banana's perennial nature, we also assess technology impacts over time by considering plantation age characteristics, a method not used before. We find that adopters and non-adopters are systematically different with regard to personal and farming attributes. Agricultural information access matters for adoption but also for productivity benefits.

Status of biotechnology in Eastern and Central Africa
GYS Mtui - Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 2011
This work examines trends of both conventional and modern biotechnologies in selected Eastern and Central African countries namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, with the aim of giving an up-to-date assessment of their national policies, institutional capacities, and the activities being carried out. Agricultural biotechnology seems to take the lead while biotechnologies related to health, industries and environment are lagging behind. Kenya leads the region with its biotechnology policy framework in place and more on-going biotechnology related activities, followed by Uganda. Tanzania has already developed its biotechnology policy but is slower to translate it into practice especially on matters related to modern biotechnology. The rest of the countries are yet to formulate their biotechnology policies but efforts are underway to achieve that goal.

Agricultural productivity and policies in Sub-Saharan Africa
B Yu & A Nin-Pratt. IFPRI Discussion Paper. 2011
We analyze the evolution of Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA’s) agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) over the past 45 years, looking for evidence of recent changes in growth patterns using an improved nonparametric Malmquist index. Our TFP estimates show a remarkable recovery in the performance of SSA’s agriculture between 1984 and 2006 after a long period of poor performance and decline. That recovery is the consequence of improved efficiency in production, resulting from changes in the output structure and an adjustment in the use of inputs. Policy interventions, including fiscal, trade, and sector-specific policies, appear to have played an important role in improving agricultural performance.

Agricultural and Food Policy News

Uganda granted $ 7 million to develop resistant Matooke cultivars
Africa Science News Service
Uganda has been granted USD 7.07 million through Cornell University by the United States Agency for International Development to develop pest and disease resistant banana varieties. The grant, which is managed by the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Project (ABSPII) in Cornell’s Office of International Programs, will run through October 2016. “The project will allow us to focus on developing the resistance of the East African Highland Banana, locally known as Matooke, to pests like nematodes and major diseases like Black Sigatoka, fusarium and bacterial wilt,” says Frank Shotkoski, Cornell ABSPII director.

Government needs a national seed law to boost production in agricultural sector
The Observer
The government needs a national seed law and to fasten the intellectual property rights (IPRs) policy to boost production in the agricultural sector, an independent study shows. Presenting the 487-page report, ‘Harnessing Intellectual Property Rights for Development Objectives’, researchers Godber Tumushabe and Julian Barungi from ACODE concluded that IPRs for agriculture will ensure food and nutrition security for ordinary Ugandans.

Uganda: Nation Lacks a Research Policy, Varsity Don Says
Daily Monitor
The Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Sciences at Busitema University, Prof. Deo Olila, has decried lack of a research policy in the country, a factor he says has left Ugandans applying a chaotic research approach. "We need a national research agenda which sets out priorities, principles and clear procedures. Uganda's research approach today is just chaotic. Today you hear about an electric car and tomorrow food research," Prof. Olila said last week.

Radio tagging weevils could help save bananas
SciDev.Net
Spying on insects could help farmers around the world improve their fight against the devastating weevil pest, in banana, potatoes and soybeans, according to scientists. But to maximise their effectiveness it is important to understand how the pests behave, said Fabrice Vinatier, a researcher at the Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development, in Martinique, French West Indies. His team tagged banana weevil pests with radio frequency identification (RFID) which use radio waves to transfer data from the tag to a computer and allows tracking of the insects' movements.

Agricultural and food policy research
Note that if you experience any trouble in downloading any of these research documents, you can contact us e-mail for assistance IFPRI-KampalaCommunications@cgiar.org. We can offer no guarantees that we will be able to provide the document, but we may have other avenues to pursue to assist you.

Capacity building in agricultural research - A case study on Uganda’s Makerere University
P Okori. ASTI–IFPRI/FARA Conference – 2011
The Government of Uganda has developed the Government Prosperity for All policy, and the National Development Plan guide policy within the agricultural sector. To support this broad development strategy, Makerere University has been required to learn as it engages in agricultural research and development (R&D) and develops much-needed human resource capacity. The University’s key contributions to regional agricultural R&D development include (1) policy research and information, (2) strategic R&D, (3) support for agricultural extension services, (4) support for research innovation, (5) a focus on emergent development challenges, (6) training for regional agricultural R&D needs, (7) meeting national agricultural R&D capacity needs, and (8) support for national agricultural development. These activities are mainly being implemented in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) and the School of Veterinary Medicine, funded by the Government of Uganda and its development partners. Public–private partnerships remain weak.

Who owns the land? -- Perspectives from rural Ugandans and implications for land acquisitions
A Bomuhangi, C Doss, & R Meinzen-Dick. IFPRI Discussion Paper. 2011
Based on a study of land tenure in Uganda, this paper analyzes how different ways of defining landownership—based on household reports, existence of ownership documents, and rights over the land—provide very different indications of the gendered patterns of landownership and rights. Although many households report that husbands and wives jointly own the land, women are less likely to be listed on ownership documents, especially titles, and women have fewer land rights. A simplistic focus on title to land misses much of the reality regarding land tenure and could especially have an adverse impact on women’s land rights.

Contemporary processes of large scale land acquisition by investors - Case studies from sub-Saharan Africa
L German, G Schoneveld, & E Mwangi. CIFOR. 2011
Rapid growth of emerging economies, emerging interest in biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and recent volatility in commodity prices have led to a marked increase in the pace and scale of foreign and domestic investment in landbased enterprises in the global South. Emerging evidence of the negative social and environmental effects of these large-scale land transfers and growing concern from civil society have placed ‘global land grabs’ firmly on the map of global land use change and public discourse. Yet what are the processes involved in these large-scale land transfers? This paper provides a comparative analysis of legal and institutional frameworks and actual practices associated with large-scale land acquisitions in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. Drawing on policy documents, interviews with government officials from diverse sectors and discussions with customary leaders and affected communities, we explore some of the deficiencies in legislation and practice which currently undermine the ability to safeguard customary rights in the context of large-scale land acquisition.

International Conference: Call for Abstracts
Agriculture in an urbanizing society: International Conference on multifunctional Agriculture and Urban-rural relations.
1-4 April 2012. Wageningen, The Netherlands. For details, please visit: http://www.agricultureinanurbanizingsociety.com/UK/Conference+theme/