The role of European Union in promoting Agriculture in Lira District, 2005-2016

Abstract

Uganda’s agriculture sector registered positive growth at 2.6 per cent and 1.3 per cent in 2008/09 and 2007/08, respectively.(UBOS 2009). However, given that these rates of growth are below the Population growth rate of about 3.2 percent per annum; per capita agriculture production in the country has declined. An important aspect of moderation of the likely negative Consequence is that food production performed better at 2.8 percent in comparison with nonfood agricultural production. Moreover, growth in agriculture is below the target rate of 6 percent per annum targeted by the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003 under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). This research focusses on how the European Union has improved agriculture in Uganda, but with greater focus on Lira district, in the Northern part of Uganda, between the period 2005-2016. The Northern and Eastern parts of Uganda did suffer conflict as the result of the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency. The war left thousands of people displaced from their homes and another more than 10,000 people died in the LRA insurgency. According to the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) study, it was estimated that atleast 66,000 children and youth had been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) between 1986 and 2005. Harald ; 2014 notes there was an “NGO obesity” that surprisingly left the Northern Uganda situation in reverse. Too many NGOs and international organizations had withdrawn too soon with too much unfinished business.