Together We Stand

[ 125 ] Building resilience to economic shocks in Uganda’s dairy sector: the role of farmers’ organizations Dr Umar I. Kamarah, Islamic Development Bank N orthern Uganda has been marked by intermittent conflicts and low-level civil war against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has caused tens of thousands of casualties and displaced more than a million people, with dire humanitarian needs. Why have conflict prevention and recovery proven so difficult to address, and what can be done by the Government of Uganda and donors to help restore a stable development path in East Africa’s fragile and war-torn regions? The central message here is that strengthening rural institutions — especially farmers’ associations — is critical to breaking the cycles of violence and building resilience to economic shocks in northern Uganda. At the height of displacement in northern Uganda, there were 2 million internally displaced persons. For the last 21 years, northern Uganda has been the scene of low-level civil war, insecurity and drought, mostly triggered by the LRA in Acholi land (Kitgum, Gulu and Pader districts), Lango region (Apac and Lira districts) and Teso region (Kaberamoido, Katkwi and Soroti districts), and by armed Karamojong cattle rustling and drought in the Karamoja region (Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts) leading to massive displacements. Farmers’ organizations play a crucial role in the develop- ment of rural areas. But how influential are they when it comes to drought-prone areas and fragile, post-conflict situa- tions? What can they achieve and how can they increase their effectiveness? After seven years of strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities through the ‘linking smallholder farmers to markets’ programme jointly supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), phase three of the Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Programme (CAIIP) will close in December 2016. In Uganda, key lessons have been learned in relation to farmers’ organizations. In Africa, the role of farmers’ organizations in driving the development of the agricultural sector has increased over the years, especially after the economic structural adjust- ment programmes that reduced government involvement in providing vital support services such as extension and link- ages to markets. In Uganda, following the LRA’s atrocities in the Acholi regions, the Government embarked on a mixture of targeted initiatives towards dairy production and general liber- alization of the sector that allowed milk to be traded. A series of programmes led to the restructuring of the production and marketing of dairy products in the country. Measures taken by the Government and donor support included importing exotic heifers and pedigree bulls; rehabilitating the national artificial insemination services; supplying inputs; and design- ing supportive policies such as those relating to regulations, insurance and institution-building. With the focus on institution-building, a strategy of forming dairy farmers’ associations to assist in the production, collec- tion and marketing of milk was adopted. The aim of these associations is to bring dynamic changes to dairy farming in Uganda, with a view to providing effective and efficient service to small-scale dairy farmers and influence policymaking. The overall goal is to expand and organize the dairy industry to become competitive and sustainable. The role of the Ugandan Government and other agencies is to enhance the existence of these farmer groups, some of which are now registered as cooperatives. Currently, there are 229 registered cooperatives involved in collective milk production and marketing. In terms of milk production, Uganda is divided into six milk sheds: northern, eastern, south-western, mid-western, central and Karamoja. The division is based on both geographical and ecological considerations. The total number of milked cows in Uganda was estimated to be 1.52 million in 2015, and the northern region had the lowest (10.4 per cent). The question is why and how to build resilience and increase the effectiveness of farmers’ organiza- tions in this conflict-affected region. First and foremost, dairy farmer groups are primary insti- tutional structures created to improve the sustainability and profitability of Uganda’s dairy sector. During the 1970s and Uganda’s milk cattle by region Source: NLC, 2014 Region Number of milked cows Percentage Central 376,080 24.7 Eastern 310,480 20.4 Northern 158,540 10.4 Western 413,300 27.2 Karamoja sub-region 261,190 17.2 Total 1,519,900 100 T ogether W e S tand