The role of agricultural modernization within poverty eradication framework: the case of Uganda

Poverty continues to be among the most acute problems in sub-Saharan Africa. With average poverty rates of 47%, in some sub-Saharan countries as much as 70% of the entire population lives below poverty line. The common theme in the poverty discussions is that infrastructure and social institution development, land reform and improvements in government performance are significant contributors to agricultural modernization and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. These areas are becoming increasingly popular for interventions in these countries. Do the above polices contribute to agricultural modernization and does agricultural modernization help reduce poverty in Uganda? is the central question of this study. This study uses neoliberal economic theories to build an empirical model for testing research hypotheses. The study applies the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to analyze impact of agricultural modernization, infrastructure, social institution, government performance and land reform on poverty indicators in 99 of Uganda\u27s villages. The analysis of the data provides some evidence that agricultural modernization is associated with poverty reduction. However, the results also show that agricultural modernization may lead to unsustainable resource uses and be a source of potential threat to the quality of livelihoods in Northern and Eastern Uganda. This study produces some evidence that effects of policy interventions on agricultural modernization and on poverty are limited and not always in the expected direction. Social Institutions, Land Reform and Infrastructure showed significant effects on poverty, however, the effects of security of land rights on food security are opposite to those hypothesized and could not be easily explained. In addition, only Social Institutions and Land Reform have significant effects on agricultural modernization, but the effect of Land Reform on Agricultural Modernization is in the opposite direction to what was hypothesized. Finally, this study produces some evidence of equitable distribution of benefits from agricultural modernization in Uganda. With few exceptions, multigroup analysis did not show significant difference in the rates of poverty reduction or agricultural modernization between population economic subgroups or between regions. This study suggests that future research should focus on identifying other important factors that may contribute to poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa