MAALF/ACDP earmarks 6.4BN for small works to improve Farm Road Access

Rural economies in most African countries are primarily agrarian with minimal supply chains and inadequate infrastructure to enable access to markets. Most markets for food products are more than two to five hours away from farm households and this is a serious constrain to transportation of produce and movement in general.

In Uganda, the poor state of community access roads is often escalated during the heavy rain seasons, when rural road bridges are washed away and roads become impassable thus disconnecting farmers from potential market areas. The spoilt road sections are often referred to as chokes that impede the

Effects of heavy rains on Nabitende -Bwengo road in Iganga Cluster

regular movement of motor vehicles, motor cycles or even people. These road chokes are a major challenge to the inflow and outflow of commodities to and from rural farming communities.

Through the ACDP sub-component 2.3, technical and financial support has been ear marked for small works to make farm roads accessible at community level and usable for the movement of commodities. The major activities of this sub- component include;

¨      Mapping of high production areas.

¨      Selection and prioritization of the roads to be rehabilitated by cluster multi stakeholder platforms.

¨      Identification of potential site-specific Environment and Social Risks and Impacts.

¨      Preparation of detailed designs and bills of quantities for selected roach chokes.

¨      Rehabilitation of road chokes and

¨      Supervision of works by the MAAIF teams.

An average four roads have been identified by the district committee teams for the five pilot clusters per district and the corresponding road chokes. A total of 794 road chokes have been prioritized and 6.4 billion Uganda shillings ear marked to fix the road chokes.

Environmental and Social Safeguards assessment of potential sites was conducted in the five pilot clusters to identify gaps and prepare the host communities where works will be undertaken in the areas of Gender Based Violence and Violence Against Children. To handle any complaints by project-affected people, Grievance redress committees have been sensitized to handle such cases as they arise.

For the five pilot clusters, field surveys were undertaken and information collected which guided development of drawings, technical specifications, bills of Quantity and road section profiles.

From the designs, cost estimates for the rehabilitative works were developed and used in the prioritization of roads to be worked on.

The advert to procurement contractors to rehabilitate roads in the pilot districts was run on November 17, 2019. However, the heavy rains of late last year resulted into floods that damaged roads and other infrastructure.  This has necessitated the need to revise and update the Bills of Quantity to replace the earlier approved ones.

As a result, the estimated costs of the works in the pilot districts increased from UGx 6,400,750,020/= (approximately USD 1.73M); as assessed in April 2018 to UGx 13,219,237,150/= (approximately USD 3.57M). This double increment is attributed to the long period over which the road conditions have progressively deteriorated.