MAAIF adopts a local investment approach: Farmer’s contribution hits 7 billion!

 The e-Voucher subsidy scheme  targets farmers, farmers’ associations,  farmer cooperatives (Area-based Commodity Enterprises), and other stakeholders along the value chain. The Agriculture Cluster Development Project aims to work with approximately 300 Area-based Commodity Cooperative Enterprises representing about 3,000 Rural Producer Organizations. These rural producer organizations represent about 450,000 farming households, of which 180,000 are producers of maize (50 percent of these also produce beans), 95,000 are producers of beans, 40,000 are producers of rain fed upland and rain fed lowland rice, 110,000 are producers of Robusta and Arabica coffee, and 25,000 are producers of cassava.

How do farm households participate in the e-Voucher subsidy scheme?

For farm households, support takes the form of a time-bound partial and diminishing matching grant (subsidy) to help finance the purchase of key inputs and on-farm storage. Participating households pay for a portion of the cost of the inputs and use the subsidy to pay for the remaining portion. For each participating household, this support is provided for three consecutive crop cycles. After enrollment, a farmer is required to pay a commitment fee of 20,000 UGX which is a portion of the contribution required of the farmer for that season. The farmer deposits this fee on his/her e-voucher account and this is automatically reflected. The subsequent payments towards the matching grant has to be completed within a specified time. All this happens before MAAIF loads its matching grant to the farmer’s e-voucher account.

“…When the e-Voucher subsidy scheme was introduced, farmers did not understand it and were reluctant to join! but now this co-financing mechanism has created a lot of ownership and farmers are really appreciative….”

Mr Isiko, the District Production & Marketing officer Bugiri district.

The instrument for providing the time-bound, partial, and diminishing matching grant for the purchase of key farm inputs is an e-Voucher. Eligible farm households receive an e-Voucher that covers part of the expense involved in the purchase of a group of specified inputs. Each farm household is free to choose the specific combination of inputs purchased with the e-Voucher from the menu of eligible inputs. On confirmation of the transaction, an e-voucher allows instant electronic payment to agro-dealer’s online accounts for the inputs redeemed by the farmer. The E-voucher system also allows the approved agro-input dealer be able to maintain their stock (Agricultural inputs)

The e-Voucher system was deployed in November 2018 and to date, over 120,047 farmers have been enrolled. The total value of redemption stands at UGX 21,080,386,323 with a government contribution of 14,071,241,987 and the farmer’s contribution of UGX 7,009,150,343


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