Analysis of socioeconomic factors affecting agricultural production in Uganda: a case of Bagezza sub county, Mubende District

Abstract

The study examined the socioeconomic factors affecting agricultural productivity in Uganda taking a case study of Bagezza Subcounty in Mubende District. The study was conducted with the specific objectives to identify the socioeconomic factors influencing agricultural productivity, to identify the institutional factors affecting agricultural productivity, to identify the technological factors influencing agricultural productivity and to suggest strategies that can be adopted to improve maize production. The study adopted a cross sectional design where data was collected from each respondent at a time. This type of design was cost effective, saved time and more information was collected in a relatively short period of time and it also allowed data to be collected at one point in time from different individuals. The findings of the study indicated that the major socioeconomic factors were mainly fertility of land, the rate of inflation in the country, ability to obtain maize seeds, access to fertilizers, purchasing power of maize in this area and household income. The institutional factors included poor climate change prediction by government, access to agriculture information, the distance to the market, government set prices for maize and marketing association while the major technologies factors established by the study were machinery cost, innovative farmers in terms of agricultural technology, access to high breed seed varieties and access to extension services. The study also suggested strategies which mainly included adopting genetically modified crops, improve access to financial services, land reforms to reduce on land fragmentation, improvement of infrastructure, develop high-yield crops and provision of better incentives to farmers to boost maize production in Bagezza Sub County. The study also drew some recommendations which included government to put more emphasis in getting ways to incorporate the use of genetically modified plants to improve on yields, coming up with land reforms to help curb the habit of land fragmentation, government to put in place more village banks and SACCOs to provide an alternative to farmers financial needs, government to provide more facilitation to the body concerned with weather change prediction (Uganda Metrological Center) and adopting zoning in the agricultural sector by encouraging growth of particular crops in particular areas which the nature of soils are favourable.