KAMPALA, February 14, 2025 – Members of Parliament on the Budget Committee have described the 25 percent co-funding requirement for farmers to access the Micro-Scale Irrigation Programme as unrealistic and unaffordable for the majority of farmers in the country.
The programme, designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change, particularly drought, stipulates that farmers must contribute 25 percent of the total cost to access irrigation systems or equipment, while the government covers the remaining 75 percent, with a maximum contribution of Shs 7.2 million per acre.
This initiative is part of the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Reform Programme (IFTRP) and is supported by the World Bank through the Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Programme (UgIFT).
In their report on the National Budget Framework Paper for the financial year 2025/26, the legislators noted that, given the extreme weather patterns, including prolonged dry spells and unpredictable rainfall, irrigation should be prioritised in sectoral budgeting to mitigate the detrimental effects on food production.
The committee highlighted that government efforts to support farmers through irrigation are currently insufficient, citing inadequate funding and the lack of sustainable incomes in households.
“The UgIFT programme requires a 25 percent co-financing contribution by the farmers but this has become a burden since it has proven to be unaffordable for beneficiaries. The cost of the programme is often inflated, making the 25 percent co-financing unaffordable for farmers,” the report states. “The government should revise the co-financing requirement for beneficiaries under UgIFT to no more than 10 percent to increase the uptake of micro-scale irrigation systems among farmers.”
The irrigation programme limits support to 2.5 acres (1 hectare), primarily targeting smallholder farmers who wish to transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture.
The programme was designed to assist farmers in purchasing and using individual irrigation equipment and aligns with Uganda’s National Irrigation Policy, which aims to create 1.5 million hectares of irrigated land by 2040. The programme is supposed to sustainable agricultural production and employment to the farmers.
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