Economic viability of fertiliser use in Uganda's agriculture

We examine the viability of inorganic fertiliser use in Uganda, using the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey data. We also explore the farmers’ characteristics under which fertiliser use is more profitable. We find that inorganic fertiliser use is more profitable for only a few crops and less profitable or unprofitable for most crops, even when their yield is high. Furthermore, we find that farmer profit with fertiliser use increases with access to extension services and/or use of improved seeds. Thus, blanket promotion of fertiliser use, without a case-by-case consideration of fertiliser-crop profitability is likely to be counter-productive to the drive of increasing agricultural productivity and household income in Uganda. Hence, the drive to increase fertiliser use in Uganda can succeed only if farmers are widely sensitized not about the potential of fertiliser to increase yield but the crops on which fertiliser use is more profitable and the preconditions for its profitability.