Networks among agricultural stakeholders in the southwestern highlands of Uganda

The aim of this study was to explore the interactions that exist among agricultural stakeholders in the southwestern highlands of Uganda as a way of identifying opportunities and gaps for operation of Innovation Platforms (IPs) under the proof of concept of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) research project. The specific objectives were to (i) characterize the agricultural stakeholders in the study sites (ii) determine the nature, diversity and relative importance of horizontal and vertical networks that exist among stakeholders in the Southwestern Highlands of Uganda. Data were collected from both stakeholder analysis and household interviews in Kabale and Kisoro Districts. Results show that extension staff, local governments and farmer groups accounted for approximately 75% of all categories of stakeholders in the area. Most of these organizations started after 10 to 15 years ago following the return of relative political stability in Uganda. Generally, stakeholder interactions in site with limited ARD intervention are more limited compared to their high-intervention counterparts. Sites with “good” market access have more institutions operating there but majority are isolated from each other. At household level, an individual household has networks with approximately two different organizations most of which are farmer groups or credit associations. The greatest proportion of horizontal networks that a household has is with fellow farmers. In order to make the value chain complete, establishment of IPs should pay special attention to including the private sector such as input and produce dealers. Facilitating IP actors to identify critical challenges and opportunities, and effectively articulate them will ensure cohesion. It is also critical to periodically monitor and evaluate stakeholders in terms of the quality of the networks to minimize conflict situations

Financial cost-benefit analysis of bench terraces in Rwanda

Bench terracing has received considerable attention from soil and water conservation (SWC) programmes involved in soil erosion control in Rwanda. It is questioned, however, whether enough attention is paid to the suitability of the soils and to the eventual financial profitability. Terraces may reduce soil erosion and increase production but they should also provide sufficient financial gains at farm level. A plot level financial cost–benefit analysis was undertaken to examine under which social and economic conditions bench terraces are financially viable in Northern and Southern Rwanda. Farmers' estimates of respective costs and potato yields from plots with subsidized and un-subsidized bench terraces, progressive terraces and plots with no terraces at all were obtained for the analysis. Costs of labour and manure were found to be the most influential for the profitability of bench and progressive terraces. While the cost–benefit analysis, using market prices, showed that bench terraces would be hardly profitable, an analysis with opportunity costs for labour and manure indicated that bench terraces and even more progressive terraces can be financially profitable. Extra measures and incentives may be required to facilitate use of labour and access to manure, as now achieved with the one cow per family policy. This paper suggests that further studies should be undertaken to determine costs and benefits of bench terraces beyond private perspective in Rwanda