Study of fisheries contribution to Uganda's GDP

Abstract

Uganda has been able to achieve increasing growth rates of up to 7% per annum over the last five years under the Government's reforms programmes set up to redress economic imbalances through economic rehabilitation, growth and development (MPED 1987). The main objective of these reform programmes is to achieve GDP growth rate of at least 5% and reduce inflation rate to 15% by the end of June, 1993 (MFEP 1992). However, there is now the problem of sustaining this high growth rate, much of which has been achieved from the agriculture sector. Falling world prices for the major agricultural products, namely coffee and cotton, coupled with increasingly unpredictable weather conditions in the country have led to major fluctuations in the performance of the agricultural sector over the years, and thus in the overall performance of the economy. In 1991/92 financial year, for example the growth rate in the economy fell from 3.9% in the previous year to 1.8%, while within agriculture it fell from 2.6% to -1.5%. This fall has been attributed to the factors mentioned above.There has been a growing concern over this situation and the Government has been exploring' avenues for expanding and diversifying the economic base of the country away from the traditional agricultural crops.