Poverty reduction in rural Eastern Uganda: case study of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS)

Informed by global development discourse, sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments developed and implemented successive interventions to reduce extreme poverty and food insecurity, with variable success. The Ugandan government constructed its poverty-reduction plan to align with international development aid policy. It had achieved some success in recent years. However, rural poverty levels remained high. This study examined the initially donor- driven National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) to expand understanding of effective engagement with Uganda’s premier agricultural development program. Studies on the role of agricultural development in poverty reduction and food security in SSA concentrated largely on program evaluation and outcomes measurement to support the construction of evidence-based policy. Many failed to acknowledge the importance of context in the design and implementation of development policy. Most poverty-reduction and development policies, including the PRSPs, MDGs, and SDGs, formulated through international agencies, presumed universal applicability and failed to take account of local exigencies, including widely varying political, social, cultural, economic, and natural environments. This qualitative study sought to examine the machinations of NAADS in rural Eastern Uganda from the perspective and experience of successful ‘model farmers’ (n=15), who had reaped the rewards of agricultural development. This enabled a ‘rich description’ of farmers’ individual subjective experiences and interpretations of their success. A thematic analysis of the findings revealed the complex interaction between sociocultural, economic, political, and physical environmental factors in shaping the farmers’ progress. The study found that NAADS targeted farmers that fit their eligibility criteria and created the context for their success. Though framed as a poverty- alleviation program, its key objectives related to productive agriculture and, though policies were externally driven, NAADS focused on local farmers in local contexts. The findings suggested their success related to their familiarity with, and participation in, the structures and operations of NAADS, joining local farmers’ associations, attending meetings and training sessions, contributing assets (land, transport, and farm machinery) for training development sites, having storage facilities to stockpile grain for sale when the price was right, engaging in farmer institutional development initiatives, visiting experimentation and technical development sites and farmers’ field schools, and involving family members.