East African community countries have been urged to come up with policies that support small farmers to participate effectively in the Agriculture sector where they contribute about 60%. 

Uganda’s Minister in charge of East African Community Affairs Shem Bageine in his speech read by the Commissioner of production and Social services in the Ministry of East African Affairs Ronah Sserwada during the East African Community Agriculture Budget Summit held at Entebbe said that it’s the responsibilities of the Governments in the community to guarantee the thrives of Agriculture sector in the Five member states of EAC.

“Member states should create a conducive, policy, Legal and program frame work that supports the growth and expansion of Agriculture sector where the major stake holders are small farmers who need much support from their Governments,” the minister said. 

The Minister noted that the Agriculture sector contributes much in the regional Economies but because of the lack of pro-small farmer’s policies the sectors contribution in the regional Gross Domestic products is declining For stance the Minister said that the Contribution of Agriculture sector in the Economy of Burundi has decline by 34%, Kenya 29% Rwanda 32% Tanzania 25% and Uganda at 23%. 

Bagaine in his speech told participants majority being small farmers from all over the Five member states that East African Community has established Regional Integration protocols Where member states committed themselves to co-operate to attain Food security and rational agriculture production through the community by promoting complementarity and specialization in order to increase productivity, Food Sufficiency, exports and Agro based Industries but such objectives may not be achieved if the larger population (small scale farmers) are not supported.

Presenting the overview of the state of Public Financing for Agriculture in the East African Community, David Walakira, the Budget Analyst at the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), said the Agriculture sector growth in the Community block is still ragging behind the 6% Sector Annual Growth which was set up by the African heads of states during the Maputo declaration in 2003 and its failure is attributed to the poor funding of the sector by the regional Governments.

“This call for the examination of Government priorities and the need to call up on national Governments to allocate more funding to the agriculture sector and work towards an annual sector growth of 6% as captured in the Maputo declaration of 2003 and the Malabo declaration of 2014,” he advised the EAC Governments. 

EAC country Draft Budgets for the financial year 2015/2016 indicates that Rwanda in the financial year has allocated 5.9% of her total Budget, Uganda 3.35% Kenya 3.15%. This is still far behind the proposed 10% African Heads of states agreed on during the Maputo declaration.

According to the Maputo declaration all Heads from the African Union agreed that 10% of their Country’s Total Budget should be allocated to Agriculture Sector however. According to Walakira no single Government from the EAC has implemented the declaration. 

The Two declaration are fundamental towards the development of the Agriculture sector if are well implemented for stance the recent Malabo declaration which meant to transform Africa’s Agriculture and Food Security sector Using the Comprehensive African Development programme (CAADP).

Some of the Objectives of the Malabo declaration 2014 is to End Hunger by 2025, Halving Poverty also by the year 2025 and boasting Intra-African Trade in Agricultural commodities and services. However the Budget Expert said such Economic Objectives will remain on paper if African Governments particularly those in EAC do not implement the Maputo protocol which calls for the allocation of 10% of the total Budget to the Agriculture sector which is employing about 60% of the Total population in EAC.

Participants in the Agriculture Budget said because of the poor funding of the sector it has made the cost of Agriculture production to be very expensive especially to the small Scale farmers in the EAC block especially in countries prone to droughts.

Philippe Rivuzumwami small scale farmer from Burundi said the Agriculture sector in his country is doing badly in some parts of the Country especially in the North which are prone to Droughts and in Southern parts of the Country where they experience some moderate of Rainfall, the soil is not fertile this call s for the Application of fertilizers and Irrigation.

“Our Farmers in Burundi cannot afford to pay for Irrigation services and Buy fertilizers that is why the sector’s contribution to our GDP is declining as farmers we call up on Governments in the region (EAC) to subsidizes the prices for modern farming practices that is when small scale farmers will effectively participate in the Agriculture Sector,” he said during the Budget Meeting.

The EAC agriculture Budget summit attracted stake holders from Governments Civil societies Academia and policy makers from the parliament of Uganda. The Regional Agriculture Budget Summit was Jointly organized by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) Action Aid Uganda and Eastern and Southern Africa Farmers Forum (ESAFF) and its Objectives was to enable small scale farmers to Understand how the Regional Countries are performing in allocating resources to the Agriculture sector.

Other participants especially those from Uganda pointed out factors such as the presence of fake seeds on the market, Inadequate access to financial services from credit institutions coupled with lack of Access to Agricultural Extension services by majority Local farmers as the major obstacles pending Small scale farmers to progress in Agro based related Business in the Country .

Responding to farmers, Samuel Ssemanda, the Commissioner for Agriculture planning in the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries, said the Ministry has developed a new comprehensive Agriculture policies which are pro small scale farmers sin the country.

“The Government has come up with new Agriculture sector policy which will focus on supporting local farmers through the implementing the National Agriculture Advisory Services-single spine Extension services system where Local farmers will get access to Agricultural Extension services from services providers at the Lower Local Governments,” he assured the participants in the forum

According to the Ministerial Policy Statement of the sector, the implementation of the single spine extension system is apriority in the financial year 2015/2016 in order to implement the new system the Ministry requires about UGX39billion to fully staff and pay salaries for the vacant extension staff in all districts and sub counties in accordance with the new staff structure.

The new structure provides for one veterinary Officer, Agriculture and Fisheries officers at the District level at subcounty level and at the District level the structure provides for One District production Coordinator, one principle Agricultural officer one principle Veterinary officer and Fisheries officer the combination of the two structure will be responsible for Implementing the Single spine extension systems 

Uganda’s former Minister of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries Victoria Sekitoleko told the East African Business Week that farmers need the Advises of the Agricultural Extension Services providers saying this can lower the cost of Agricultural production.

“Some farmers are ignorant about certain types of agricultural inputs such as seeds pesticides and fertilizers but if there’s that opportunity of interacting with Extension services providers some of the information gaps can be closed thus lowering the cost of Agricultural production being incurred by the farmers in the rural areas,” the former Minister said.