Experts urge Uganda government on social insurance schemes for farmers

The government of Uganda has been urged to introduce social insurance schemes for farmers to protect them from losses caused by climate change and other natural disasters.

Speaking at the 12th National Agriculture and Food Security Forum in Kampala on Tuesday, several experts and researchers stressed the importance of social insurance scheme for agricultural entrepreneurs.

“One of the challenges in mobilizing savings is voluntary registration. Some countries have implemented mandatory registration, requiring farmers to make contributory savings. Is this approach feasible for Uganda, and how should we go about implementing it?”  Brian Sserunjogi, a Research Fellow at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), said.

Sserunjogi said most Ugandan farmers operate informally and entities like the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) need to think through packages that can target the peak of the two seasons in the year when farmers are earning.

He added that other developing countries such as Kenya, Costa Rica, Ghana, and the Philippines have adopted innovative measures to expand schemes like Uganda’s NSSF to highly informal farmers.

Ms. Mwenya Kapasa from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said for farmers to think about contributory social security schemes, they must be helped to ensure they have food security and some income. It is then that they can think of putting some savings aside for the future.

“Farmers are not the only group we aim to include in social protection. The conversation should extend beyond farmers to ensure that no one is left behind and that everyone has a sense of income security,”Kapasa said.

Dr. Ibrahim Okumu, the Dean of Makerere School of Economics, said as we talk about social insurance schemes for farmers, issues of production and productivity and income of a farmer be emphasized. Farmers can only contribute 2 social security schemes when they have an income, he stressed.

Victoria Sekitoleko, a former Minister of Agriculture, said Ministry of Agriculture needs to use a value-chain approach and register value-chains. She says this is already being done with the coffee and the sugarcane value chain.   

However, unlike the current system where NSSF savers have to wait for years to access their savings, Sekitoleko recommended having a system that allows a farmer to have access to their savings in a short period for instance a year.

Allan Munabi who heads Strategic Services at the NSSF, said while the new amendments in the NSSF law allow for those in the informal sector to save with the fund, the challenge they face with farmers is that many of them are not in the cash economy.

Munabi said that bigger informal farmers can contribute to the fund through voluntary contribution although he notes that they have not yet got regulations from the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development to guide them on the rates and other technicalities.

Mr Ejiku Robert, the Uganda Tea Development Agency Ltd boss, wondered why it has taken long for the country to start discussing social insurance schemes for the farmers. He said it’s long overdue in the tea sector.

However, he said that they can’t be forced to save as members as this can even scare away farmers from agriculture, later on impacting production.