The Impact of Access to Agricultural Services on Maize Productivity in Uganda.

Abstract

The study examined the influence of access to agricultural services on maize productivity in Uganda. It was motivated by the fact there are low maize yields and yet the government has continuously increased funding to the agricultural sector through providing agricultural services to the maize farmers. The study analysed the access to credit services, extension services and access to markets and their influence on maize productivity. Using the multiple linear regression analysis and the Uganda Census of Agriculture 2008/2009 data, collected by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS), we found that access to credit services leads to an increase in maize productivity, access to extension services increase maize productivity and access to markets leads to an increase in maize productivity. On the basis of these observations, we recommend that there is need for government to strengthen measures for farmers to access credit through farmer membership groups, VSLS, farmer banks, need by government to employ more extension workers to cover the largely unreached areas at the village levels and the central government should work together with the local governments in establishing maize produce markets in each sub-county in order to reduce the distance farmers take to reach the markets and through group marketing under farmer groups.