However, the adoption of good agricultural practises should be within the means of even resource poor farmers, and this will enable them to raise their yields even without having to purchase modern farm inputs.3 Pilot programs such as the USAID funded Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Program have demonstrated that yields per acre can be doubled for many of the major crops grown in Uganda – coffee, bananas, maize, rice and cotton – if farmers adopt good agricultural practises even with only low input technology.
Once smallholder farmers can raise their yields and produce a larger surplus for the market, they will begin to generate the financial resources which will enable them to start to purchase more modern inputs, such as fertiliser, which will enable them to further boost their yields.