Effects of infrastructure development on the financial performance of commercial farmers in Uganda.

Abstract

Agriculture is the main economic activity carried out in Uganda and most of the households depend on agriculture as the source of income, Uganda is one of the leading producers of agricultural products in East Africa therefore commercial farming is crucial for people’s survival and the country’s financial performance. The main purpose of the study was to establish the effect of infrastructure development on the financial performance of commercial farmers in Uganda. To this three factors were identified: Transport, Market access and Mechanization. The effects of these factors on financial performance of commercial farmers were investigated differently. The data was obtained from a sample of 30 households in Kyasuma village Masaka district through the use of questionnaires and interviews. The frequencies and percentages revealed that the rate of infrastructure that is transport, market and mechanization is moderate in this area because the government has being working on the high ways which has greatly helped in the access of urban markets. As evidenced by the data on the house hold levels in Masaka district most of the farmers affected by the infrastructure problems are the ones situated in the suburbs because this makes it difficult to gain access to the highway transport and also accessing of market information is very difficult due to lack of network lines, in terms of mechanization most of the areas lacked the power to run the machines therefore the introduction of mechanization in such areas is insufficient.