Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
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intelligence, and information as the numbers remain low. For instance, only 15% of Uganda’s
coffee smallholders are united in associations, federations, and cooperatives.278
The NDP is complemented by the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP) for the period
2015/16 to 2019/20 has formulated four key intervention areas:279
1. Increase production and productivity;
2. Provision of high-quality seeds, inputs, and planting materials to smallholders;
3. Improve market access and value addition with a focus on twelve prioritized
commodities selected on their potential for food security and exports. The UEPB
has an important mandate to provide guidance on (international) market access.
4. Improving institutional capacity of extension services, standards, and quality
assurance. This also includes addressing the mentality of farmers, who need to
become more entrepreneurial.
Realizing these interventions includes improving the hardware, especially market
infrastructure for small quantities. The Government of Uganda seeks to provide electricity to
people in rural areas to enable them to do the most primary forms of processing to enable
them to add value to their products. Improving Uganda’s agricultural hardware also concerns
post-harvest handling and storage through the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS).
The formation of farmer groups is another pillar of MAAIF’s policy. Farmer groups have been
established in partnership with the Government (e.g. to provide extension services), which are
considered vital for a viable production and market system. These farmer groups eventually
evolve into farmer cooperatives. So-called area “cooperative enterprises” have been
established through support from the WFP, connecting small-scale farmers with storage
facilities and markets.280 From there, as it concerns more large-scale quantities of agricultural
produces, the Ministry of Trade and Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB) pick it up.281
Finally, improving market information systems are crucial. This is currently challenged
because it private-sector led but very costly to provide. Small-scale farmers don’t use market
information as they are not business-minded and do not consider it as input for their business.
An important aspect of market information relates to standardization (e.g. size, volume, and
ingredients).
5.3.2 Agricultural & Food Market Institutions
A number of line Ministries and market institutions exist to implement NDP and ASSP,
particularly with respect to regulating and enabling various market channels of Uganda’s
agricultural and food sector. The institutional framework of Uganda’s agricultural market
system is set and governed by a number of Government entities and non-Government entities.
This section only focuses on selected agricultural market institutions based on the
classification accentuated in the Conceptual Framework in Chapter 1 (i.e. six key agricultural
market institutions). Given Uganda’s policy context, these market institutions have a more
278 Interview conducted with Uganda Coffee Development Authority in Kampala, June 8, 2017
279 Interview conducted with Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries, and Fish in Kampala, June 9, 2017
280 Interview conducted with Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Kampala, June 7, 2017
281 Interview conducted with Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries, and Fish in Kampala, June 9, 2017