Agriculture in Uganda
On the whole, the contribution of the agricultural sector to the National Gross Domestic Product in 2005/06 was 31 percent.
Output from the agricultural sector for the financial year 2005/06, was estimated to have marginally increased by 0.4 percent in 2005/06 compared to an increase of 1.5 Percent in 2004/05.
Number of Agricultural Households
In 2005/06, the number of Agricultural Households was estimated to be 4.2 million or 78.8 per cent of all the Households.
Results of the Agricultural module of the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) 2005/6 also show an increase in the number of agricultural Households as revealed by the figure below
Crop Production
Growth in the agricultural sector is highly affected by weather conditions as the sector is largely small holder and is heavily rain fed. The erratic and unevenly distributed rainfall recorded in 2004 and 2005 is increasingly affecting output especially food crops. Drought caused scarcity of seeds and planting materials, especially, cassava cuttings, sweet potato vines, hence limiting the planting of crops in some districts. This was aggravated by other factors such as poor soils, pests and disease attacks and increasing land fragmentation shown by the decreasing Average holding size as shown in the figure below.
Production (Mt) and Area (Ha) of major crops
Crop type |
Production ('000mt) |
Acreage ('000Ha) |
Maize |
2,400 |
1,539 |
Finger millet |
189 |
262 |
Sorghum |
162 |
328 |
Rice |
180 |
107 |
Beans |
665 |
872 |
Groundnuts |
219 |
283 |
Banana (food type) |
4,176 |
1,112 |
Cassava |
1,656 |
1,070 |
Sweet potatoes |
1,695 |
672 |
Number of Cattle
The National Herd was 7.5 million in the UNHS 2005/06 composed of 1.3 million (or 17.3%) Exotic/Cross Cattle and 6.2 million (or 82.7%) Indigenous Cattle.
The Central Region led in Indigenous Cattle with nearly 2 million (31.5%) followed by the Eastern Region with 1.6 million (25.5%). The Northern and Western regions had 1.3 million (20.3%) and 1.4 million (22.6%) respectively. Out of the 1.3 million Exotic/Cross cattle, the Western Region had the highest number (890,000), which was 70.5 percent of Exotic/Cross Cattle. The Central Region was next with 198,000 (or 15.7%). The Northern Region had the least number of Exotic Cattle (22,000) representing only 1.8 percent.
Cattle Number by breed and region, UNHS 2005/06 (‘000)
Region |
Exotic |
Indigenous |
Total |
Central |
198 |
1976 |
2174 |
Eastern |
151 |
1601 |
1752 |
Northern |
22 |
1273 |
1295 |
Western |
890 |
1419 |
2309 |
Total |
1262 |
6269 |
7531 |
Goats
The estimated number of goats was 8.1 million as given in the table below. Out of this, 0.3 million (3.9%) were exotic goats.
Region |
Exotic |
Indigenous |
Total |
Central |
42 |
1220 |
1262 |
Eastern |
55 |
1647 |
1702 |
Northern |
13 |
2167 |
2180 |
Western |
208 |
2725 |
2934 |
Total |
318 |
7759 |
8078 |
Number of Sheep
The national sheep flock was estimated at 1,217,000. This was a
fall from 1,555,000 recorded during the PHC 2002. Exotic sheep were estimated nationally at 21,000 (1.7%) of the national flock. With nearly 16,000, the Western region had 76.2 percent of the exotic sheep.
Number of Sheep by Breed and Region (‘000)
Region |
Exotic |
Indigenous |
Total |
Central |
5 |
161 |
166 |
Eastern |
|
145 |
145 |
Northern |
|
512 |
512 |
Western |
16 |
378 |
394 |
Total |
21 |
1,196 |
1,217 |
Number of Pig (‘000)
The number of pigs for Uganda was estimated to be 1,707,000 which was a substantial increase from 773,000 recorded during PHC 2002 as given in the Table below. With 835,000, the Central Region had 48.9 percent of the pigs, followed by the Eastern region with 387,000 (22.7%). The Northern Region had the least number of 138,000 (8.1%).
Region |
Total |
% |
Central |
835 |
49 |
Eastern |
387 |
23 |
Northern |
138 |
8 |
Western |
347 |
20 |
Total |
1,707 |
100 |
Number of Chicken
The national chicken flock, which was 23.5 million, composed of 3.7 million (15.8%) exotic/cross Chicken and 19.8 million (84.2%) back-yard.
Regarding back-yard Local Chicken, the Eastern Region had the highest share of nearly 7.4 million birds (37.3%). The Central and Northern regions followed closely with 4.3 million (21.7%) and 4.2 million (21.3%) respectively.
The Western Region with 3.9 million had the least number of Local Chicken among the four regions.
Out of the 3.7 million exotic/cross chicken national wide, the Central Region had the biggest number with 2.4 million (64.5%) and the Northern
Region had the least with 0.05 million (1.3%) as shown.
Number of Chicken by Breed and region
Region |
Exotic |
Indigenous |
Total |
Central |
2,398 |
4,291 |
6,689 |
Eastern |
854 |
7,382 |
8,236 |
Northern |
49 |
4,227 |
4,276 |
Western |
416 |
3,905 |
4,322 |
Total |
3,717 |
19,806 |
23,523 |
Fisheries Production
The total Fisheries production was estimated at 416.75Mt from all the water bodies with Lake Victoria that contributing 61% followed by L. Kyoga and L. Albert as shown by the figure below.
Export Performance of the agricultural sector
The contribution of Traditional Exports (TEs) (i.e Coffee, Tea, Cotton and Tobacco) to the overall exports value has tremendously declined over the period under review. During 2002 the share stood at 39.1 percent, and there after plunged to about 33 percent in the year 2005. Although there have been slight increases in volumes exported for Tea, Tobacco and Cotton, the decline in
World market prices of these crops have earned less foreign exchange than expected.
Coffee has maintained the lead as the main foreign exchange earner, although its share to total export earnings declined from 20.7 percent in 2002 to 18.7 percent in 2004 then increased to 21.3 percent in 2005. Although there was a reduction in the volume of coffee exported in 2005, coffee earnings increased from US $ 124.2 million to US $ 172.9 million. This can be attributed to the improvement in the international coffee prices. Tea registered a substantial reduction in the earnings with exports share falling from 7.2 percent in 2003 to 4.2 percent in 2005. Cotton share also reduced from 6.4 percent to 3.5 percent in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Meanwhile, the share for tobacco to total exports reduced from 9.7 percent in 2002 to 3.9 percent in 2005
The slight change is attributed to the increased effort by the government to boost non-traditional exports leading to increases in the various NTE products such as Vanilla, Roses and Cut flowers, and, Fish and fish products.
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries,
- O. Box 102,
Tel: 256 41 320987/9, 320004.
Fax: 256 41 321047, 321010
Entebbe, Uganda.
Website:
Email: psmaaif@infocom.co.ug