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NAADS CLOCKS HALF A DECADE
On 1st June 2006 the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) - under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries - made 5 years since its inception in June 2001.
The objective of NAADS is to promote market oriented farming by increasing the availability of appropriate technologies, technical advice and information to poor farmers.
Coverage and Funding
As at June 2006, NAADS was operating in 49 (71%) districts and 345 (36%) sub-counties of Uganda with approximately 25,000 farmer groups and over 500,000 households are benefiting from the program. During the current FY 2006/07 the Prgramme has rolled out to cover a total of 63 districts and 517 sub-counties.NAADS is funded by the Government of Uganda and Development Partners who include; World Bank (IDA), IFAD, EU, DFID, DANIDA, the Netherlands and Irish Aid.
Programme outcomes and Impact
The impact of NAADS is well documented in reports by externally commissioned and independently conducted surveys across the country at grassroots level. Scanagri (Denmark), IFPRI (USA - Washington) and Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS - Uganda) conducted the surveys at various times. The Scanagri and IFPRI's surveys conducted last year (2005), as part of the Mid-Term Evaluation of programme performance, were specifically intended to measure NAADS' impact at household level. These studies covered 37 districts, 311 farmer groups and about 4,690 farm households in both NAADS and non-NAADS sub-counties. The studies complemented a previous study undertaken by IFPRI in 2003 as well as internally commissioned studies by the NAADS Secretariat, which covered 8 districts, 680 farmer groups and 2,944 farm households.
The surveys assessed the impact of NAADS on farm households in five areas:
* Yields and incomes
* Adoption rates
* Quality of services
* Availability of services
* Farmer empowerment
In general, the degree of NAADS impact was found to be dependent on a number of factors, including the number of years a district or sub-county has implemented the programme, the nature of the enterprise being promoted, the degree of local government support and commitment and whether a farmer is registered in a farmer group member or not.
Farmers preparing feed using a locally fabricated fodder cutter.
Yields and Incomes
In three years of NAADS implementation, the average value of crop production per acre and income per capita were found to have increased 27% and 41% respectively in NAADS sub-counties than in non-NAADS sub-counties.
For instance in Soroti District farmers have realized increased incomes from the sale of oranges. Arob Farmers Group for example owns two acres of orange plantation and one acre of the crop consists of 130 trees and from each tree comes two bags, one bag of the oranges costs between thirty to fifty thousand Uganda shillings. Arob farmers have reinvested the money realized from orange sales to purchase 2 cars (1 tipper lorry and Toyota corolla) to facilitate the business in terms of transportation and marketing the produce.
Technology Adoption
A central goal of NAADS is to improve the uptake of new technologies and improved farm management practices in order to increase farm incomes. This is done through establishing Technology Development / Demonstration Sites (TDSs) hosted by model farmers on their own fields. The findings of the survey showed that 73% of the farmer groups had benefited from these demonstration sites and that 64% had adopted the improved technologies and farming practices that they were exposed to.
This needless to say has a positive economic impact on the farmers' incomes. These achievements are as a result of the fact that 77% of NAADS farmer groups reported having a TDS within three kilometres of their households, compared to 22% of non-NAADS groups. And 80% of NAADS farmer-groups, stated that their access to agricultural technologies had increased, compared to 33% of non-NAADS groups.
Examples of technology adoption are:
In Soroti the Sorghum variety locally known as Epuri pur is one of the enterprises that has realized high rates of adoption, Soroti as a district produces 1000 tonnes of epuripur, where a Kilogram of Epuripur is sold at 300 shs directly to the Nile Breweries.
Availability and Quality of services.
The report showed that 73% of farmer-groups received agricultural advisory services through NAADs while 86% of farmer groups felt that their access to information had increased compared with 59% of non-NAADS farmer groups. Through such appreciation farmers are willing to pay for services they perceive as vital to their farming activity. A key principle of NAADS is the empowerment of farmers to demand and manage advisory services themselves. This is achieved by increasing participation in and ownership of the programme through establishing farmer institutions - farmer groups, parish committees, farmers' forum - which are responsible for planning, procurement and budgeting for NAADS activities.
Farmers Empowerment
Empowerment is evidenced by the fact that 88% of NAADS groups stated that they had greater ownership of the extension system (through NAADS) compared to 30% of non-NAADS groups. Prior to the launch of the NAADS programme, an economic analysis was undertaken to determine the minimum level of benefit required to justify programme investment. The conditions necessary for a break-even rate of return on the investment were found to require a minimum household productivity increase of just below 1% (The break-even rate of return used was 12% and represents the opportunity cost of capital). As part of NAADS's mid-term evaluation, the economic costs and benefits of the programme were re-examined in the context of the findings above to determine the estimated rate of return for the programme.
It was estimated that the programme would, by year seven, generate an 18% rate of return with a net present value of UShs 52 billion. Average incremental household incomes would be approximately UShs 65,000 per year, equivalent to an increase of 8% in household agricultural income.
Farmer empowerment manifests itself in several ways, a good example of this is procurement of services:
Farmers in Bukiende sub county in Mbale district have been empowered to make decisions and assume ownership of the programme for example farmers often withhold payment for service providers if they have not performed as per terms of reference, in some extreme cases service providers have had their contracts terminated as a result of doing shoddy and sub standard work.
Generally shoddy service provider's contracts have been cancelled by farmers in Kabarole and Kibaale.
In acheiving the above impact NAADS has also been found to be most cost effective, NAADS has thus been relatively more cost effective at reaching farmer groups, which renders its per-household costs lower than the previous extension system - the Agricultural Extension Programme (AEP). Using the number of households receiving direct contact from NAADS through farmer groups, the cumulative cost of the NAADS programme per household is UShs 134,405. Consequently, going by the survey data and statistical analysis NAADS has had a positive economic impact in Uganda. The projection is that the service will continue to contribute to economic growth and the Gross Domestic Product (through increased livestock and crop productivity) so long as the current momentum is maintained. It's however worthwhile to point out that maintaining profitability may be a challenge in the future as NAADS expands and supplies of certain products increases. Marketing will thus be important in managing these expected increases in production.
The relative cost effectiveness of NAADS compared to previous systems also demonstrates greater efficiency. The programme's
approach is more effective in reaching farmers, hence making it a cheaper alternative than previous systems designed to offer similar services.
While challenges will crop up especially when NAADS scales up to nationwide coverage, just like any expanding programme, evidence from the first half of implementation reveals it has achieved a high level of efficiency relatively quickly.
NAADS in the North
During the last two years, the NAADS has actively participated in specific interventions to address the national challenge caused by the war in Northern Uganda.The 20-year old rebellion in Northern Uganda has ruined every economic activity and agriculture to no exception. At some stage the conflict spilled over to Teso in the districts of; Soroti, Kotido, Kaberamaido, and Kumi.
Current estimates put the number of IDPs at 1.6 million people. In addition to the LRA insurgency, cattle rustlers from Karamoja have for years also afflicted these two regions and destabilized its people.
As a government strategy to improve food security in the region:
In 2005, the NAADS established technology multiplications centres for high performing crops and provided farmer training in the districts of Kotido, Pader, Gulu, Adjumani, Kaberamaido, Kumi, Katakwi, Lira and Apac for the displaced. Close to 1,700 acres of land have been put to use in these districts. The technology multiplication sites for selected enterprises were strategically introduced to equip farmers with adequate knowledge, skills and improved technologies. Beans, upland rice, groundnuts and sorghum were re-introduced.
A recent visit to farmers’ groups in IDP camps revealed farmers were able to utilize and benefit from the technologies apart from a few in Kotido and Apac where the harsh weather led to withering of the planted sorghum.
Helen Akello a resident of Purongo sub-county, 67kms, South of Gulu town said her group Ribe Aye Teko received 72kgms of rice superica II that they planted on four acres. "We followed the trainings from the service providers on management of the crop that is why we were able to harvest 30 bags," said Akello.
When they milled their rice they got 25 bags, which they sold at Shs1.6m. "We are going to re-invest this money in rice and hope to get more profits," Akello added.
NAADS intervention in the IDP camps has seen an estimated 282 farmer groups formed benefiting over 5,600 households.
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