The impact of National Agricultural Advisory Services on household welfare in Bushenyi district: a case study of Rwengwe sub-county

Abstract

This study was conducted in Rwengwe sub-county, Bushenyi district in Western Uganda to assess the impact of the NAADS on household welfare. Specifically the focus was on establishing the contribution of NAADS on household food production and the factors that influence that contribution. The study involved respondents from 76 households (39 NAADS and 37 non-NAADS households) selected through cluster random sampling from which data was collected using face-to-face interviews. Results showed that young people were less involved in agriculture. In addition, NAADS had positively affected both NAADS and non-NAADS households with more NAADS households reporting positive changes in all the thematic areas under investigation. NAADS was reported to have positively affected agricultural income, food production, volume of agricultural produce sold, access to agricultural information, access to financial services and number of animals reared.

A comparison of the NAADS and non-NAADS households in terms of production of selected enterprises specifically; Bananas, beans, maize and milk further indicated that the NAADS households generally had significantly higher yields for bananas and milk. The positive effect of NAADS was largely attributed to introduction of better varieties, improved farming methods and emphasis on farmers’ groups. The researcher recommends that NAADS should continue to sensitize farmers to ensure that all households join groups, enterprise selection criteria should be generated through a bottom-up approach and that reasons for the limited involvement of youth in farming be carefully investigated and addressed.