Govt Messing Up Agriculture
Government has made a U-turn and rescinded its unwarranted five-month suspension of National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads).
By restoring Naads, government has only corrected a deliberate fault and does not deserve any applause. In a country where farming is still dependant on weather, farmers align their activities to weather patterns. Anyone supporting them must synchronise their help with their seasonal calendar.
Moreover, government has never been convincing on why it banned Naads in September 2007. The expert government panel which facilitated Naads design consultations identified lack of farmer access to information, knowledge and technology as the biggest impediment to agricultural growth.
It envisaged an agricultural transformation process maturing over at least 25 years and thus recommended that Naads be given enough time (25 years) to build a firm foundation for sustainable farming enterprises.
However, government now wants to discount the projected achievements of the 25-year programme into two, three or maximum five years. By blasting Naads for "having nothing to show" other than spending a lot on farmers' education, government behaved like the impatient idealist, Obi Okwonko, whom Chinua Achebe portrays in his novel No Longer at Ease.
Obi is out of touch with reality after spending a while in a western university and clamours upon his return, for space where he "can stand and move the world." In the end, he becomes a victim of his impatient idealism. He is rejected by his own people, finally arrested and convicted in court.
Like the impatient idealist, government has expressed its desire to "give Uganda a new face" in the immediate term. It has reportedly completed a restructuring of Naads so that it primarily focuses on agro input supply rather than information, knowledge, and farmers' education. The restructuring has in essence converted Naads into a relief organisation.
Naads objective was to fulfil the Biblical philosophy: teaching man how to fish rather than give him fish" in accordance with expert panel recommendations. The "trained angler" would obviously need a "hook" to do a good job - which Naads was providing through its enterprise promotion and technology multiplication strategy. The relief approach will not create a sustainable impact on farming communities.
