Uganda’s agricultural heartland is a paradox: Despite being the backbone of the country’s economy and sustaining over 65% of the population, many farming regions remain stuck in poverty, according to the 2023/24 National Household Survey.
In the final instalment of a four-part series, Joshua Kato explores the role tractors play in determining crop yields. He also examines why the lack of mechanisation perpetuates poverty in Uganda’s farming communities.
It is 11:00am. Bernard Omoding is using a plough drawn by two oxen to cultivate a field in Olilim, Katakwi district.
He is assisted by his son, John Otim. Omoding also hires the oxen to community members. The ox-plough is the leading farm production machinery in Teso and Karamoja sub[1]=-regions.
Omoding said a set of oxen and plough costs about sh1.2m. A farmer pays sh60,000 to sh80,000 to hire an ox-plough to till one acre.
Further down this highway towards Moroto, in Longerechora village, Napak district, Loren Acuman and her two children dig black, soft soils using hoes. Across Karamoja and Teso sub-regions, the hoe is the main farm tool. Countrywide, there are an estimated 20 million hoes that dominate subsistence farming households in Uganda.
Hoe dominates
According to the National Development Plan, agricultural production in Uganda is mainly dominated by smallholder farmers engaged in growing food and cash crops, horticulture, fishing and livestock farming.
This is backed by data from the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics. For example, out of the 3.6 million respondents in one study, 95.8% used hoes.
Farmers that are categorised as subsistence are estimated to deliver 75-80% of the total agricultural output.
Smallholder enterprises, commercial farmers and estate operators are 15%, 3% and 0.5% of the farming community in Uganda, respectively.
Intriguingly, a map of Uganda indicating tractor use shows the greatest concentration in the areas of Sebei, the western and central region cattle corridors, the grain farms in Nwoya and Amuru districts, as well as parts of Bunyoro and southwest Buganda regions. Karamoja, Lango and Teso sub-regions have the least number of tractors.
Although average crop yields in Uganda have been increasing, they remain low in the worldwide context. For example, with cereal productivity of about 800kg/ hectare, Uganda and generally East Africa has the least cereal crops productivity per hectare than any other region in the world.
Owing to the increasing scarcity of land, increasing agricultural productivity calls for a change in farming methods, that is, adopt the use of tractors.
Med Mwiri from Engsol said a tractor is a workforce multiplier, thus improving a farm’s productivity.
A tractor can plough 10 acres per day. Comparatively, an ox-plough can till an acre a per day. With a hoe, it takes a month to plough an acre.
Numbers still low While a percentage of farmers have bought tractors, the Government, through the agriculture ministry, has been the largest distributor of tractors.
In March 2019, the largest single number of tractors were handed over to farmers and farmer groups by President Yoweri Museveni at Namalerere in Wakiso district.
In June, the Government issued a procurement order for over 500 tractors, with each costing sh120m. To date, farmer groups have received about 600 tractors.
To put it into context, if the 600 tractors given out in the last six years are operated on a single day, they can plough at least 6,000 acres.
On a monthly basis, working through 25 days, then those are 120,000 acres ploughed! This is in addition to planting, processing silage or pumping water.
Agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze said there are 4,700 tractors in the country.
However, “Only about 1,400 tractors or 25% are fully operational,” he said.
Experts believe that to create effectiveness for tractor use, the country needs at least 15,000 tractors, Mwiri said.
According to various reports, just about 1% of farmers in Uganda use a tractor.
This is lower compared to some other countries in Africa. For example, in Egypt, 57% of farmers use tractors, while 12% in South Africa do so. In Europe and most developed farming countries, farm tractor usage is over 95%.
Maintenance
“The tractor is strong, but the arm lift is weak,” Emmanuel Mutingi from Kyegegwa Fruit Farmers Association said.
Because of this ‘weak link’, they are always spending money on repairs.
Mutingi said the tractor ploughs are incompatible with the hard soils too.
Tooro Dairy Co-operative Society, which also received a tractor, is reporting the same problems and this means that many of the tractors are not working properly. Compared to the plough arm lift, the gear boxes are also prone to breakages.
“It happens when the operator engages a wrong setting,” Mwiri says.
The tractors come with a two-year warranty from the supplier, plus service after 2,000 hours of operation. However, not all tractors are operating smoothly. For example, some of them, especially those delivered between 2014 and 2017 broke down and the beneficiaries have failed to repair them.
Mwiri attributes this challenge to a lack of trained personnel to operate tractors.
“A tractor is not driven like a car. The person operating it must have adequate knowledge to do so. There is no college for training tractor operators,” Mwiri says.
He, however, says as a company, they train three operators for each tractor they sell. Under the arrangement also, a farmers group is supposed to meet 20% of the purchase cost as a guarantee that they can maintain the equipment.
Mwiri also said some of the tractors lacked a complete set of implements.
“A set includes a plough, harrow, planter, trailer, hay baler, silage processor, planter, boom sprayer,” he said.
To turn the tide, Tumwebaze said the Government is setting up maintenance centres.
“There are five mechanisation centres in Mbale, Bungokho, Dokolo, Kiryandongo districts (which we are yet to complete) and Buwama with Namalere as the referral,” he added.
Impact seen but….
“We are now growing grass for the cows and that requires a lot of ploughing,” Nicholas Matsiko, owner of High Mark Dairy Farm in Kashari, Mbarara, said.
Matsiko uses a tractor to prepare the farm before grass and forage is planted.
He uses the tractor, together with other cattle keepers to grow and process pasture for the animals. While some of the 40 tractors are not operating to capacity due to various reasons, Bukaka group tractors are performing well.
Matsiko said one of the reasons his group has successfully used the tractor is because they invested beyond the donation.
“Each farmer is charged sh100,000 per acre covered at the farm. Non-members are charged sh120,000 per acre. We make sure that all farmers pay this money so that our tractor is well-serviced,” he said.
The result, Matsiko said, is increased pasture production. Traditionally, livestock farmers depended on natural grass to feed their cattle. However, while handing over 40 tractors in March 2017, President Yoweri Museveni urged farmers to abandon their traditional agricultural practices and start growing sufficient feeds for the animals, selecting quality seeds and irrigation if production is to be improved in the country.
