Assessing the impact of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) on Rural Livelihoods: A case study of Mityana District.

Abstract

Uganda is one of the agricultural economies in the Eastern African region, given its ability to produce a variety of foods and in large quantities. It comprises of the food and cash crops production, livestock, forestry and fishing sub-sectors. Operation Wealth Creation emerged as a result of restructuring the previous programme NAADS. In2001,government established the NAADS programme. It was established by an act of parliament to specifically address constraints to agricultural development,including lack of access to agricultural information, knowledge and improved technology among rural poor farmers.Operation Wealth Creation was also meant to promote the development of farmer organizations and empower them to procure advisory services, manage linkage with marketing partners.The major purpose of the study was to find out if Operation Wealth Creation has contributed to the improvement of Mityana rural livelihoods through agriculture. The specific objectives of the study were:To find out the progress and development of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) in improving Mityana rural livelihoods, to document the nature of services and products provided by Operation Wealth Creation inimproving Mityana rural livelihoods and to examine challenges facing Operation Wealth Creation in implementing its interventions in Mityana district rural areas.The study employed a descriptive research design to investigate various issues regarding how Operation Wealth Creation has contributed to the improvement of Mityana rural livelihoods trough agriculture.The study also used qualitative and quantitative data. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). Qualitative approach aimed at obtaining data expressed in non-numerical terms. Results show that most of the respondents have benefited from Operation Wealth Creation (OPC) by improving literacy among farmers, sensitizing farmers to create their own jobs and empowering farmers with technical skills.The study concludes that the funds were insufficient to enable effective Operation Wealth Creation implementation in Uganda. Therefore, Local governments, Mityana district in particular xi-faced budget cuts which have negatively affected the state of Operation Wealth Creation implementation.The study recommends that there is need to build mechanisms into a framework that integrates and accommodates different stakeholder interests, strengthening how policy is put into action by aligning policy with implementation. By doing this, farmers in rural areas are most likely to benefit from operation wealth creation and hence improve their livelihoods.