Giving free seeds and cattle to Ugandan farmers is a bad idea, authorities say

On the afternoon of Thursday two weeks ago, Uganda’s finance minister presented the national budget for 2017-18 to parliament, and stressed the government’s determination to boost agricultural production through what is called Operation Wealth Creation.

As the honourable minister was telling off heckling MPs who were not impressed by the operation’s last financial year, a peasant in western Uganda was cooling off in the cells, where he had been thrown a few days earlier on an agriculture related offence.

The peasant had received a healthy Friesian cow which was four months in-calf as part of Operation Wealth Creation, and impatient to create wealth from the Friesian, sold it to the nearest butcher who slaughtered the cow, selling its tender meat to the locals. But the peasant who had received the cow was not allowed enough time to enjoy his newly created wealth. The hitherto broke guy was just beginning to have a blast in town when police pounced.

But the constitutional 48 hours before the expiry of which a suspect must be produced in court were flying by fast, and the cops could not find an offence under which a man who sells his cow to a butcher can be charged. For the guy had not committed any theft! But the Resident District Commissioner raised his complaint and the guy was held as investigations and consultations were being speeded up.

However, the man who slaughtered an expensive exotic cow that was set to provide some 40 litres of milk daily for several years to come was probably not the first abuser of Operation Wealth Creation, as others have sold off heifers given to their wives under the Operation. Nor are the cow sellers the worst.

According to the Honourable Matia Kasaija as he was presenting his budget speech, the “survival rate” of seedlings provided by the Operation to farmers is 40 per cent. This means that over half of the seedlings for fruit trees, coffee and other shrub crops that are given to farmers just perish.

Cause of death? Lack of water. The peasants have no inclination to water the free seedlings given to them under the Operation, and so they wither and die. We are talking here of a few hundred billion shillings laid to waste (Ush360 billion = $100 million.)

The sheer wastage under the great Operation is not a matter of rumours or criticism by disgruntled opposition. It is described in detail in the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries tabled before the House a month or so before the finance minister read his budget.

The committee listed some funny findings, like the fact that the Operation people don’t seem to distinguish between grain and seed. So in places, they give out grain to farmers to plant that fails to germinate and in others, they give out seed where it is not wanted and it ends up in the cooking pot.

The committee is chaired and dominated by members of the ruling party, so there was no malice in their shocking report.

The committee members in their conclusions recommended that issuance of free things to farmers should stop simply because they do not value them.

The writer is a social and political commentator based in Kampala.