Uganda: "agriculture and biofuels, the road to prosperity"

There are two types of NGOs: those in the West that look at problems from a global perspective with a 'bird's eye' view on things, and those on the ground, locally engaged in concrete actions based on immediate experiences and needs.

Harold Turinawe from the Ugandan NGO 'Kigezi Action for Development', belongs to the latter type. He wrote a short but interesting opinion piece in New Vision, a Kampala based journal, on why biofuels and bioenergy contribute to social development, food security and environmental protection and why they slow down deforestation, land degradation and the deterioration of watersheds. He also criticizes the ideology of 'micro-finance', which negates the obligations of the state and the responsibility of political actors. With permission, we publish it here in full, and add some of our own notes:

Agriculture, the Road to Prosperity for All
The architects of Bonna Bagaggawale ('prosperity for all') erred in looking at the project from the micro-finance approach, thereby missing vital elements of sustainable projects that can attract investment by the common man.

Many proponents have argued that the rural poor do not invest due to lack of start-up capital. On the contrary, the major impediment is lack of leadership in identifying viable and sustainable projects. Ideally, one would think of projects that fit in the routine activities of rural households.

Note: Bonna Bagaggawale is a nationwide micro-finance initiative hailed as a road to development, which shifts the responsibility of the Ugandan state to the individual household. Micro-finance is a buzz-word nowadays amongst charitable organisations and NGOs from the West. It propagates an ideology of micro-entrepreneurialism that effectively erodes the structural obligations of the state. As such, it must be classified as a typical 'neoliberal' development strategy. Many development economists do not take this type of micro-finance seriously, as it creates a climate in which the state's functions, needed to guarantee public services and investments in such much-needed things like infrastructures, are implicitly negated. Only the power and leverage of the state can create the conditions under which 'micro-entrepreneurs' can thrive in a sustainable way.

Our rural population can invest successfully in no business but agriculture, given their knowledge, skills and technology. Therefore, the vehicle to prosperity for all must rest on agriculture. Strategies to introduce new, market-oriented and agriculture-based projects should be the starting point. We should look at existing agricultural products and perhaps introduce new varieties of crops and animals. This can transform our poor communities into self sustaining societies.

Note: in most Central-African countries, like Uganda, agriculture is indeed the key to development. More than half of Central-Africa's population lives off the land; in some countries more than three quarters do. Thus, all development efforts should be directed towards these populations. Often neglected in the past, more and more governments and international development agencies are gradually taking agriculture up once again as the central focus point of their policies. In order to get the sector off the ground, large, 'top-down' initiatives, organised by states, are needed: investments in infrastructures (tertiary and secondary roads, railroads, ports), agricultural extension services, fundamantal R&D efforts, facilitating access to international markets (for machines, fertilisers, import and export opportunities), the creation of new markets (for example the biofuel market), and so on. In no way does 'micro-finance' ever contribute to these large efforts that need to be made by states and that are the preconditions for a successful modernisation of the sector. The first 'Green Revolution' was implemented by the state; there is no reason to assume that the African Green Revolution can ever be implemented by micro-financiers:
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Another area that is potentially viable is bio-fuel/bio-diesel. In principle, bio-fuels are got from seed oils of maize, simsim, groundnuts, sunflower, cotton, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and sweet bananas. These crops do well countrywide in Acholi, Lango, Bunyoro, Kigezi, Ankole, Toro, Bunyoro, Bukedi and other parts of rural Uganda. These crops can be promoted for smallholder farmers while at the same time new energy crops like Jatropha may be introduced for large-scale energy farmers.

With such a programme, masses would actively participate in crop production and co-operatives to promote quality and marketing of the produce. Government departments like NARO should carry out research in energy crops and soil fertility while the bio-fuel industries provide a ready market for the produce and manufacture bio-ethanol and other by-products.

The production and use of bio-energy also contributes to poverty alleviation, food security, creates employment, reduces land degradation and helps to mitigate climate changes. Sustainable bio-energy systems, once promoted, can prevent forest degradation or deforestation, deterioration of watersheds and loss of soil fertility. These are the major concerns of the rural people.

The writer is the program coordinator for Kigezi Action for Development (KAD), Uganda.