MAFAP presents latest price incentives analysis at major NARO-MAK agriculture conference in Uganda
The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme was invited to give a talk on its latest analysis on price incentives for smallholder beef producers during the 3rd Scientific Conference in Kampala on 14–16 March 2023, organized by the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and Makerere University.
Under the Conference’s overall theme for 2023 – 'Innovations for Enhancing Productivity and Agro-Industrialization', and under the sub-theme session ‘Accelerating the Development of the Livestock-based Industry – MAFAP’s Policy Analyst and focal point in Uganda, Nana Nkuingoua, delivered a presentation to stakeholders at the Speke Resort Hotel, Munyonyo, Kampala, on the main results and recommendations from a new MAFAP report on strengthening current policies to boost beef production and exports.
The report, a joint effort between FAO’s MAFAP programme and AgrInvest project and in close collaboration with Uganda Agribusiness Alliance, analysed the effects of domestic policies as well as trade and market dynamics on domestic beef prices in Uganda from 2005 to 2020, using a set of economic indicators: the nominal rate of protection (NRP), the nominal rate of assistance (NRA), and the market development gap (MDG) to carry out the analysis.
The results reveal that although cattle breeders were penalized by low prices from 2011–2016, in more recent years they have benefitted from prices above the international equivalent. Restrictions on cattle movement owing to food-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak – an ongoing challenge for the livestock sector – pushed up domestic prices for producers. The persistent gaps between domestic and international prices can also be explained by the very limited integration of the beef value chain in Uganda within the global market
Local demand for beef is increasing in Uganda. Yet, beef production has grown by only 1% over the last decade. As measures to overcome this, the report underscores eliminating informal fees that fall on to farmers, improving transportation infrastructure and logistic facilities, creating a robust market-information system, complying with non-tariff measures, strengthening food safety and quality standards as well as the controling and preventing FMD are key areas to tackle to increase beef production and exports.
Cattle is the most important subsector in the livestock sector and plays an important role in Ugandan society, where 58% of Ugandan households depend on livestock for their livelihoods.
Read the full report here.
See Nana Nkuingoua presenting on Twitter here.
Consult the Conference programme here.
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