Analysis of the contribution of the agricultural sector to Uganda’s GDP

Abstract

The study aimed at analyzing the contribution of the agricultural sector to Uganda’s GDP. Specifically; it aimed at analyzing the contribution of each agricultural sub-sector’s contribution to GDP. It was based on time series quarterly data from 2008 to 2018 obtained from Bank of Uganda, World Bank development indicators and Uganda Bureau of statistics. The results show that in Uganda’s case, all the agricultural sub sectors i.e., Cash Crop, Food Crop, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing sub-sectors contribute significantly to Uganda’s GDP basing on the findings of the regressions that were performed during this study. It was further revealed that the Cash Crop sub-sector was the most dominant contributor to GDP due to the fact that coffee generated US$ 438.5 million in 2019 in exports. Despite government’s efforts to scale up input distribution to smallholder farmers through the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) as well as government’s effort to provide agricultural finance through the Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF), huge gaps still exist in the adoption of improved agricultural technologies by farmers Government should provide funds to acquire sophisticated farm tools and increase her budgetary allocation to this sector in a consistent manner because of its importance to the national economy, hoping that with proper monitoring of fund, it would contribute more significantly to the economy of the country.