Co-ordination of agricultural related policies to enhance agricultural planning process at village and district levels: a case study of Bukoba rural district

Abstract

Although the Government insists on participatory and bottom-up planning in agricultural projects involving all stakeholders and responsible sectoral policies, coordination of agricultural related policies (ARPs) has not effectively been practised. The main objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of coordination of ARPs to enhance village and district levels agricultural projects planning processes. The specific objectives were to: examine knowledge of stakeholders in coordination of ARPs, examine the level of involvement of stakeholders in the planning process of agricultural projects, determine the levels of effectiveness of ARPs coordination in agricultural planning, and identify factors limiting effective coordination of ARPs. The study used structured interviews to collect data from a sample of 120 farmers in Mugajwale, Kihumulo, Bulinda and Butahyaibega villages and 60 respondents from district leaders and officials. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted, one for each village; and key informant interviews were also conducted by the researcher from January to April 2012. The data were processed and analysed using SPSS computer programme. The results showed that although farmers were knowledgeable on coordination of ARPs, they were not practising the knowledge; levels of involvement of stakeholders’ in the planning process of agricultural projects were low; levels of effectiveness of coordination of ARPs were also low; and there were more factors hindering coordination of ARPs than those which facilitated it. It was concluded that coordination of ARPs was not fully practised; there was low stakeholders involvement in coordination of ARPs; and the effectiveness of coordination of ARPs was low due to presence of limiting factors. It is recommended that stakeholders should be actively involved in ARPs coordination and planning, and the limiting factors should be mitigated to achieve effective coordination of ARPs.