FAO meets with Ugandan policymakers to advise on prioritizing investments in agriculture ahead of the new national development plan Agri-food economics Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

04.04.2023

The Monitoring and Analysis of Food and Agricultural Policy (MAFAP) team of the FAO Agri-Food Economics Division and the FAO Office in Uganda held a high-level meeting on 29 March 2023 with officials from the Uganda National Planning Authority (NPA) to present and discuss key points. The findings of the FAO series of reports on prioritizing investments in food and agriculture and how they can shape future policy-making.

During the bilateral meeting between FAO and the Uganda National Planning Authority – Uganda's long-term policy planning body – Marco Sanchez, Deputy Director of the FAO Agri-Food Economics Division, presented the findings of the report First study and a computable general equilibrium model of how public investments that enhance agricultural productivity in Uganda can, through a series of scenarios, drive growth in agri-food production, with positive impacts on the economy, welfare and poverty reduction in rural areas.

Then the discussion centered around Second report On geographical prioritization of commodity investments to identify areas with high agro-ecological potential, which are also far from their potential and suffer from high levels of poverty, and therefore where investments are likely to have the greatest impact.

Finally, the Third and final report In the package on prioritizing investments in agri-food, NPA policymakers demonstrated insight from Ugandan farmers and district agriculture officials on investments most needed to increase productivity for a number of important commodities in the districts identified in the second study.

The third study, conducted by the Uganda Economic Policy Research Center on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization, surveyed farmers and local experts and asked them to rank the following eight investment areas from most to least urgent: seeds/breeds, fertilisers/veterinary medicines, mechanization, and irrigation. , extension, research and development, roads, and electricity) for each commodity and region. The five commodity pairs were: millet in Soroti; corn in serere; cassava in lira; Goats in Kibale; And coffee in Masaka).

The meeting in Kampala came at a critical time as Uganda reviews the success and lessons learned of the current Third National Development Plan (NDP III) 2020/21-2024/25, and as it prepares to formulate its next five-year plan, the Fourth NDP 2025/26-2029/ 30.

The bilateral meeting was joined by 14 officials from the NPA and several members of the NPA management team including Executive Vice President Professor Obuya Samuel Kinyera, Deputy Executive Director Charles Olini Ojok, Director of Development Planning Dr. Asuman Goluba, as well as representatives from the FAO Uganda office. Dominic Rumkins, and MAFAP Coordinating Officer in Uganda, Nana Nkwenjwa.

Before holding a follow-up meeting in the coming weeks, the NAP will review the policy evidence provided by FAO to identify areas that could shape the Fourth National Development Plan. The Authority will also prepare proposals on areas/topics where further analysis may be needed to assess the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on agricultural development, as well as a cost-benefit analysis of any proposed interventions in the agricultural sector.

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