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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