Uganda clinches lucrative deal with Bahrain ... just!

A potentially lucrative maize export deal for Uganda earlier this year would have gone sour had civil servants not managed to stop Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi from dispatching a letter that would have totally put off interested buyers of the grain from Bahrain.

Writing to Mr Nsibambi as the head of government business, Bahrain had in January sent out a feeler to Uganda asking if the country could supply maize grain to the Middle East emirate.

While in its letter Bahrain made it clear it understood the country would not be able to supply immediately and was willing to wait, sources tell The EastAfrican that without involving the relevant line ministries, Premier Nsibambi had drafted a reply that simply said the country did not have enough maize for export, a response that could have totally put off the buyer.

However, as fate would have it, technocrats from Mr Nsibambi’s office got wind of the letter before it was dispatched and advised him to forward Bahrain’s request to the Ministry of Agriculture for a more appropriate response.

Technocrats at the Agriculture ministry advised the government to keep an open door for any prospective maize buyer as the country mobilizes to produce more.

Maize takes between 100 and 120 days to ripen and technocrats are of the view that meeting such a demand is possible in a short time with appropriate mobilization.

“It is true that our maize has got a big market with inquiries coming in from the region including the Arab world. But we are saying that the government of Uganda leaves the doors open to the increasing demand since farmers can be mobilized to respond to such demand and we shall embark on export depending on what shall be available,” said Mr Okaasai Opolot, Commissioner of Crop Production.

Maize is the most important cereal in Uganda, providing more than 40 percent of the calories consumed in both rural and urban areas of the country.

Owing to changes in eating habits, maize that was once ignored in preference to millet or sorghum bread and matooke (bananas) has increasingly become a staple food for most Ugandans. In Africa, maize is a staple food to over 300 million people.

The demand for Uganda’s maize has grown beyond Kenya, which has traditionally relied on supplies from across the border with its western neighbour during shortages.

Even if Uganda were to announce it would not export its maize today, informal trade across the Kenya-Uganda border would continue.

Experts say the Kenyan crisis may persist a little longer. This would translate into a food crisis in Uganda as the country would be selling more food to Kenya.

Other countries that buy Uganda’s maize include Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Eastern Congo and Zambia.

Low production has incapacitated the country from exporting the grains to even larger markets.

In addition, the World Food Programme (WFP) continues to be the largest buyer of maize for humanitarian assistance both internally and externally across the region. Last year, WFP announced it would spend $64m to buy grains directly from Ugandan farmers.

In response to these demands, the ministry has come up with an ambitious plan to increase production that starts in the next crop season (this April).

Karamoja, a long-time neglected region that is prone to drought and famine and whose people depend largely on handouts from WFP, would be brought into maize production under the new plan to increase maize production. Over 6,000 households are targeted.

Mr Okaasai said Karamoja is extremely good for maize production. The areas around Namalu and the whole of western Karamoja will be targeted for maize production.

Other areas targeted include Acholi and Lango sub-regions, where the locals are recovering from the Lord Resistant Army insurgency.

These are in addition to some other 14 districts that chose maize as their main enterprise under National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS).

The increasing demand would be an incentive for farmers to grow the crop after moving away from producing millet or sorghum that has turned out to be more labour intensive.

Already NAADS has started a procurement process for the high quality maize seed that would be supplied to all the farmers.

To realize the desired yields, the farmers need to apply fertilizers, but the high fertilizer costs have been a hindrance.

This explains why maize yields have been partly low, reaching only 600,000 tons a year. Farmers used to reap three to four tons per hectare when they apply fertilizers.

But now, they are reaping between 800kg to 1,500kg per hectare because they do not use fertilizers, said Dr Joseph Oriokot, Director Monitoring at NAADS.

Dr Oriokot said farmers need to apply fertilizers to replenish soil fertility and structure because the soils have become poor. Uganda is one of the countries with least fertilizer usage in the region.

With good rainfall distribution across the entire country and two rain peaks in the areas around the equator, Uganda is increasingly being seen as a potential food basket, not just for region but across the wider market in Africa and the Middle East.

But the response has been slow and farmers continue to suffer cyclic variations in prices that are largely the result of lack of a structured marketing system for the crop and requisite infrastructure, such as storage silos.

Although bulk grain buyers have emerged in the period since the government shut down the Produce Marketing Board, farm-gate prices for maize are unpredictable, with farmers often making losses at harvest times, while middlemen cream off super-normal profits.