Causes of low finger millet production in eastern Uganda:

Abstract

Finger millet is some important cereal grain rich in nutrients, used as a staple food and nutritional security, with cultural, medicinal as well as economic importance for many Ugandan especially in the eastern and northern regions but has highly been deteriorating in production for the past years. This study investigated the causes of low finger millet production in Malera sub county, Bukedea district in Uganda where 50 respondents were selected with a purposive random sampling strategy from six parishes of Malera sub county that is to say Kacoc, Malera, Abit bit, Kachonga, Kasechi, Kokwech parishes. Both primary and secondary data was used which was both qualitative and quantitative in nature as the primary data was collected using questionaires and secondary was derived from publications and also key informants in the study area thereafter the collected data was entered in excel , coded and analyzed in SPSS using regressions and descriptive and frequencies as well as percentages .The descriptive analysis showed that the average age of respondents was 36 years with the minimum being 23 years and maximum 72 years while the least experience a respondent had was 3 years and maximum was 30 years with the average years in finger millet production being 10 years, the least area of land owned by a farmers was 0.25 acres and maximum was 5 acres of land with the mean land owned being 1.5 acres while the average price of finger millet was 2800/= and maximum price was 3000/= while the lowest price was 2000/=. Results further indicated that there was a drastic drop in the level production as of 2017 the production was 804kgs per acre of finger millet grain while in 2018 the production lowered to 584kgs/ acre and also in 2019 the production further declined to 465kgs/acre of finger millet grain according to the study in 2020 the finger millet yield was 383kgs/acre. Thereafter in the recent year of 2021 the yield was 303kgs/acre generally showing a decline in production for the past five years whereas a regression model showed that factors influencing finger millet production were quite a number that is to say Acreage was highly significant in influencing the level of production as well as fertilizer usage and e of soil fertility was also significant in influencing finger millet production. The study showed that the majority of the respondents used finger millet grain for brewing representing 68.9%. The study recommended that government should provide extension services. In conclusion the study realized there was a decline in production of finger millet and the factors influencing were ranging from production to marketing of finger millet in Malera sub-county.