Access of Eastern African Farmers to Domestic and International Markets: Opportunities and Constraints

This paper reviews the opportunities and challenges that Eastern African farmers face in accessing domestic, regional and international markets. With rising population and incomes, domestic markets offer great opportunities for farmers. However, because of structural, institutional and organizational constraints, small scale rural farmers may not benefit much from domestic urban markets unless they are organized and trained to meet the high quality product standards demanded by urban consumers and supermarkets. ECA countries stand to gain more by investing in commodities that are consumed within the region, than from traditional cash crops destined for international markets. Regional integration offers opportunities for larger markets and efficiency gains and this is happening, although countries still have to do more to ease the flow of goods across the region, including joint investments in infrastructure to link markets, harmonizing trade policies, and removing trade barriers that limit cross-border trade. Access to international markets remains constrained because of trade distorting practices in developed countries, especially tariff peaks and tariff escalation, domestic support to their farmers, and export subsidies. All these practices render African products uncompetitive, discourage investments in agro-industries, thus limiting growth in jobs and incomes, and slow down the pace of economic growth and overall poverty reduction. African countries stand to gain more from liberal trade policies than from aid from developed countries

Synopsis, 2013 annual trends and outlook report: Tracking key CAADP indicators and implementation

This Issue Note presents the current status and trends captured by key Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) indicators that ReSAKSS has been tracking since 2008, at continental and regional levels. ReSAKSS was established by the CAADP Partnership Platform, and later endorsed by the African Union Conference of agricultural ministers, to serve as the formal CAADP review and learning platform, charged with tracking 30 core CAADP indicators. The data for the current indicators are published in the ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlook Reports (ATORs) and on the ReSAKSS website (www.resakss.org), where they can be accessed in the form of maps and graphs and can be freely downloaded in excel format and used for analysis.Non-PRIFPRI1; ReSAKSSDSGD; WCAO; ESA

Tracking key CAADP indicators and implementation

Non-PRIFPRI1; ReSAKSS; C Improving markets and tradeDSGD; WCAO; ESA

Uganda's poverty eradication agenda: Measuring up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

MDGs, Poverty reduction, Bahiigwa, EPRC, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Production Economics, Public Economics,

Tracking key CAADP indicators and implementation processes

The revised CAADP Results Framework has 40 indicators for tracking progress across three levels. Level 1 includes the high-level outcomes and impacts to which agriculture contributes, including wealth creation; food security and nutrition; economic opportunities, poverty alleviation, and shared prosperity; and resilience and sustainability. Level 2 includes the outputs from interventions intended to transform the agriculture sector and achieve inclusive growth: improved agricultural production and productivity; increased intra-African regional trade and functional markets; expanded local agro-industry and value-chain development, inclusive of women and youth; increased resilience of livelihoods and improved management of risks in agriculture; and improved management of natural resources for sustainable agriculture. Level 3 includes inputs and processes required to strengthen systemic capacity to deliver CAADP results and create an enabling environment in which agricultural transformation can take place: effective and inclusive policy processes; effective and accountable institutions, including assessing implementation of policies and commitments; strengthened capacity for evidence-based planning, implementation, and review; improved multi-sectoral coordination, partnerships, and mutual accountability in sectors related to agriculture; increased public and private investments in agriculture; and increased capacity to generate, analyze, and use data, information, knowledge, and innovations. This ATOR presents and discusses progress on 30 of the 40 indicators in the Results Framework.PRIFPRI1; ReSAKSSDSGD; WCAO; ESA

Agricultural Productivity Constraints in Uganda: Implications for Investment

Uganda has put emphasis on the agricultural sector as a strategy for raising rural incomes and reducing rural poverty. The Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) was designed in 2000 for this purpose. However, available secondary data show that crop yields are low despite the availability of productivity- enhancing technologies on the market. The study uses household data from four rural districts selected from two ago-ecological zones to explore profitability and productivity of two technologies: improved maize varieties and improved cattle breed. The research findings indicate that growing improved maize is more profitable than local maize across all farm sizes. Similarly, improved cattle breeds (exotic and cross breeds) are more profitable and more productive than indigenous cattle. The findings suggest the need to strengthen the PMA interventions, especially under the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) in order to promote the adopting of improved technologies. The results further reveal that the farming system in northern Uganda is as productive as the coffee-banana farming system. Therefore, the poverty situation in northern Uganda is not dues to low productivity or profitability of agriculture, but perhaps due to exogenous factors such as the war that has afflicted the area since the late 1980s