Title : Competitiveness of smallholder farmers in Uganda
Abstract:
Agriculture sector is the bedrock of the Uganda’s economy. In the financial year 2022/23, agriculture accounted for about 24% of the Gross Domestic Product. About 68% of Uganda’s working population is employed in agriculture. There is a strong correlation between agricultural sector performance and overall economic growth. Agriculture in Uganda is dominated by un-competitive smallholder farmers (80%) who earn peanuts from their agricultural enterprises and are disgruntled. Several factors lead to the meagre incomes. Government has for last two decades been implementing agricultural development interventions in 15 areas under Commercialization of Agriculture. These interventions aim at facilitating smallholder farmers to become more competitive by shifting their farming practices from subsistence to commercial and hence improve their earning from agriculture. To-date the majority of smallholder farmers are still in the same state. The author is currently undertaking Management and business research to come up with evidence based knowledge to provide understanding of the conditions that should be met to facilitate smallholder farmers in Uganda improve their innovativeness and competitiveness. The methodology involves collecting and analyzing both primary and secondary data (qualitative and quantitative) to answer one general focus research question and eleven specific research questions. Preliminary results show that while a number of interventions have been implemented to improve the competitiveness of smallholders, there are a number of factors still limiting farmers’ adoption and benefit from these initiatives. The research will therefore provide an analysis of the core problem using a problem matrix to provide recommendations for designing and implementing programs that will improve the competitiveness of smallholder farmers.
Key words: competitiveness; smallholder farmers; agriculture; adoption, commercialization
