KAMPALA/UGANDA: This year, the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) is capping its 21st year in operation and two decades of impacting farmers’ lives.
After 21 years of supporting the agricultural modernization agenda, NAADS’ resolve to contribute to the transformation of the agriculture sector value chain is growing even stronger, the Executive Director, Dr. Sam Mugasi,
When NAADS was established in 2001, its core mission was to facilitate the efficient and effective delivery of agricultural advisory services for enhanced production and productivity.
The agency’s 21-year journey has been one of learning, consolidating the gains, and using available resources and expertise to create transformation across the agricultural value chain.
Some of the areas where the impact has been registered include a structural transformation in farming methods, thus making Ugandan farming more productive and profitable. Another win for many farmers is overcoming unpredictable weather with modern irrigation equipment and, value to agricultural products.
NAADS was established with its flagship pillar dubbed Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), which was a framework that spelled out the vision and principles upon which interventions to address poverty eradication through the transformation of the agriculture sector could be developed.
Of the seven PMA pillars, NAADS was tasked with the provision of extension and advisory services.
“We essentially started as the lead agency for extension and advisory services and we have built a value chain infrastructure from the bottom up,” Dr. Mugasi reveals.
In order to deliver on its mission, NAADS set out to cluster farmers according to groups and their levels of interest. A zoning strategy was also adopted in order to style the region-specific absolute advantage.
For example, in phase three of NAADS evolution, priority commodities such as coffee, tea, cocoa, fruits, dairy, fish, and bananas, among others, were promoted. In a bid to implement the zoning strategy, Kigezi, for example, focuses on tea and Irish potatoes. As for the greater Ankole region, the focus is on growing tea, coffee, bananas, and livestock.
In Buganda, the focus is on coffee, bananas, livestock, and fruits.
In the Northern part of the country, concentration is on cassava, fruits, and a bit of livestock is being pro- moted. And for Eastern Uganda emphasis was put on fruits, cassava, and sorghum growing.
According to Dr. Mugasi, major milestones have been registered by the agency.
“NAADS involvement has since created a solid foundation for building farmer organizations across agricultural value chains, which acted as a springboard for total transformation and improved household income.” “Many of the groups that were ushered as a result of NAADS’s approach to dealing with the groups transitioned to cooperatives and SACCOs,” he says.
Accordingly, there has been a reduction in the number of households living under subsistence from 68 percent to 39 percent. This has been attributed to NAADS’ contribution to the transformation of the agriculture sector through the provision of agricultural inputs, agribusiness, and value chain development for improved household food security and incomes.
Dr. Mugasi says NAADS has been able to achieve this by providing farmers advisory and other services under the NAADS mandate through groups.
“This proved to be efficient as the approach deployed to impart the knowledge was relatable. Part of the deployed method was the use of model farmers who not only inspired others and provided peer leadership, they played a key role in linking the coordination between farmers and NAADS,” he says.
Dr. Mugasi maintains that during the first phase of NAADS, farmers were provided advisory and other services under the NAADS mandate through groups. This proved to be efficient, as the approach deployed to impart the knowledge was relatable. Part of the deployed method was the use of model farmers who demonstrated farming knowledge and techniques to their peers. With such approaches, NAADS working together with National Agricultural
Research Organisation (NARO) introduced new technologies.
“You must have heard of the NAADS bananas, NAADS goats, and different varieties of livestock and crops that were extended to farmers.” “These were all done through such approaches dealing with the group rather than individual farmers,” he reveals.
Accordingly, these demonstrations were carried out throughout the parishes, sub-county, and district levels to ensure accessibility at the community level, which proved effective as it increased the adoption of new technologies, including the new banana and cassava varieties.
“It was not long thereafter before it became evident that farmers were beginning to engage in agriculture with a business mind producing beyond subsistence,” Dr. Mugasi reveals.
He appreciates the support from international agencies such as the World Bank, which came calling with a project called Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services (ATAAS).
“The ATAAS project was developed to maintain and raise the level of farmer productivity and household income through the development and adoption of modern farming technologies, techniques and strengthening market linkages.”
With better coordination from the international partners and NARO, NAADS was able to strengthen the link between research and extension services. This means research that was coming from NARO could easily be applied by the farmers on the farmland. The project helped to reinforce NAADS-phase one efforts. At about the same time a new model for supporting food security was also established.
In a bid to ensure the progressive transformation of Uganda from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture, NAADS focused on market access before farmers were categorized into different specializations. The idea was that this would create competitiveness and viable farming activities.
“Our categorization looked at those interested in food security crops such as maize, beans, cassava, and bananas. For those who are market-oriented, we introduced them to aspects of value addition which was part of the phase two plan.”
The Value Addition Crusade and the Rise of OWC
After about a decade of existence, NAADS’s focus was put on value addition. The agency made sure milk coolers, and maize mills, mainly for the market-oriented farmers, were made available to them. The farmers were then clustered according to groups and levels of interest. At this point, NAADS was reinforced with the emergence of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC).
Launched by H.E. President Yoweri Museveni in July 2013, OWC was an intervention to efficiently facilitate national socio-economic transformation, with a focus on raising household incomes and wealth creation and transforming subsistence farmers into commercial farmers to end poverty. This was after the successful implementation with tangible outcomes of the pilot program launched to support civilian veterans in the Luwero-Rwenzori Triangle.
It registered huge success in reducing the number of households living under subsistence from 68 percent to 39 percent. The agriculture sector contributes 24.1 percent to the total economic output, according to 2020/2021 UBOS statistics.
“As a result, the agriculture sector in Uganda is expected to grow by 4.3 percent, as a result of growth in food cash, crop production, and livestock,” Dr. Mugasi promises.
With the arrival of the Parish Development Model (PDM), the icing on the cake has been established, considering the infrastructure that has been laid by 21 years of NAADS work in the villages.
According to Dr. Mugasi, the PDM program takes care of the entire value chain and NAADS role will be to reinforce it even further.
“We can help with the mobilization of farmers, link them (groups) with the value-addition chain” he opines.
He adds that NAADS will also be able to support other segments of the community where the PDM is not encompassing and by filling that gap, it will be able to build sustainable value chains.
“Going forward, NAADS will be focusing on emerging high-value crops with high market potentials such as macadamia and avocado while at the same time continuing to support tea growing as one of the high-value commodities.”
Testimonies
The NAADS transformation of entire livelihoods in the countryside is best demonstrated in MsZainab Nakijoba. Ms. Nakijoba was a practicing subsistence farmer before NAADS came into contact with her. Her total transformation into a commercial agricultural practitioner is a compelling story. Her experience as a mixed farmer in Mpigi District is an indication of what happens when the right interventions are implemented without interruption.
“Before encountering NAADS, Ms. Nakijoba, a widow, was a low-level subsistence farmer. She was part of the 70 percent statistics that was solely growing food crops only for own use, without any surplus for the market,”
The Mpigi District-based farmer was able to change her mindset after attending a capacity-building training organized by NAADS. She says it was focusing on commercial farming.
She is now growing cassava and bananas for commercial purposes.
This is in addition to dairy farming, poultry keeping, goat rearing, and fish farming.
“This development transpired in just under five years period, starting with receiving inputs, specifically cassava cuttings from NAADS, followed by extension services, emphasizing proper farming methods and management.
Another story is that of Ms. Joan Kusemererwa a banana farmer in Kabarole District and Mr. Nelson Mubangizi, a teacher in Rukungiri District turned dairy and poultry farmer, who have similar experiences and testimonies, making a fortune out of NAADS interventions.
Over the last 21 years, the beneficiaries of NAADS intervention are of the view that the agency has not only provided a learning curve but practically touched their lives by untangling them from the web of the subsistence farming trap.
This is well exemplified in the NAADS development of key commodities value chains, including coffee, beef, dairy and fish, fruits, maize, cassava, bananas, rice, Irish potatoes, millet, cotton, tea, and cashew nuts.
As a result of the development of the aforementioned value chain across the country, the contribution of NAADS in transforming the 39 percent of households in subsistence farming into the money economy cannot be understated.
So far, NAADS intervention according to available UBOS statistics has improved the incomes of more than six million households.
Farmers have been able to expand their farmland, add value to their produce, build decent homes, and educate their children.
Talking research The Africa Growth Initiative report titled: ‘Assessing the impact of the National Agricultural Advisory
Services (NAADS) in the Uganda rural livelihoods’, applauds NAADS for improving access to marketing formation, bringing technology close to the farmers, and all other facts that concern agriculture.
Another study titled: ‘The impact of the national agricultural advisory services program on household production and welfare in Uganda’, took note of the NAADS initiative in imparting entrepreneurial characteristics among households and initiating higher productivity and market-oriented production.