Tuesday 24 July 2012

Uganda Gets $120 Million From IDA For Five-Year Agriculture Plan


By Fred Ojambo
The International Development Association will loan Uganda $120 million to finance plans to increase agricultural production over the next five years, the Agriculture Ministry said.
The loan will support the $666 million the East Africa nation plans to spend by 2017 to boost farmers’ incomes, the ministry said in a supplement published today in Kampala, the capital. Uganda will pay $497 million of that amount and donors including the European Union and Denmark will supply the rest, it said.
Agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of Uganda’s gross domestic product, and the government wants to increase crop, livestock and fish output to serve domestic markets and boost regional and international export revenue, the ministry said.
Uganda exports mainly food to neighboring countries including Kenya and South Sudan, and cash crops such as coffee, cotton, tobacco, tea and cocoa to global markets, according to the ministry.
Uganda is Africa’s second-biggest coffee producer, after Ethiopia, and the continent’s largest robusta grower. The nation was Africa’s biggest coffee exporter and the world’s ninth- largest in the 12 months through last September, according to the London-based International Coffee Organization.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net
Original article here

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