community ( eac ) partner states, and by way of comparison, the averages for sub - saharan africa ( ssa ), developing asia and south and central america, in 1991 and 2011. agricultural labour productivity in all of the five eac partner states is very low ; it was below the average for ssa in 2011 and only a fraction of the average for the other two developing regions. the average labour productivity in south and central america is more than 10 times higher than that in every one of the five eac partner states. furthermore, labour productivity growth in the eac has been at best very weak over the last two decades and at worst stagnant or declining. both rwanda and tanzania have achieved some long term growth in labour productivity, but only at 1. 5 percent a year and from a very low base. productivity has stagnated in kenya and uganda and fallen by nearly half in burundi since the early 1990s. bis central bankers ’ speeches there are, of course, differences in labour productivity within each country. in general, labour productivity is higher than the average in export crop agriculture ( coffee, flowers, etc ) but lower than average in food crop agriculture. it is the region ’ s food crop agriculture, which is dominated by semi - subsistence smallholder farmers, that presents the most difficult challenges for agricultural modernisation. in uganda, food crop production has grown at an average rate of only 0. 4 percent per annum over the last 10 years, which is far below the population growth rate of 3. 2 percent per annum. why is productivity so low in the food crop sector across east africa? the main reason is that smallholder food crop farmers are trapped in a vicious circle which links their poverty and lack of resources to low agricultural productivity and thus to low incomes. in general, smallholder farmers use rudimentary farm technology with very low levels of farm inputs, often allied with poor agricultural practises such as the mining of soils which are a reflection of their poverty and lack of feasible alternative strategies. the average value of fertiliser used on ugandan farms is only $ 0. 6 per acre per annum, and only 7 percent of farm land in uganda is planted with improved varieties of seeds. 1 the use of rudimentary technology, combined with the mining of soils which depletes soil nutrients, means that crop yields are low and of poor quality. as a consequence, the crop surplus available for selling on the market is also very low. the 2008

amount being credited by rbi to their accounts. rbi has also taken initiative in redesigning the format of the iga ( inter government adjustment ) advice and clearance memo to ensure that the advice being sent to cas is comprehensive and meets requirements of the state governments as well. i would request the office of cga to examine the suggestions made by us in this regard and implement the revised iga format at the earliest. another benefit of the connectivity would be strong mis support. from the bank's view point, on - line access will eliminate the need for periodical statements being sent to the accounting authorities as the authorities will be able to choose the period ( a week, fortnight, month or more ) for which they want the data and then can use it for any number of mis purposes. maintenance of parallel records can also be eliminated. the rbi is also examining the feasibility of using the internet to connect all state governments, central government departments and various agency banks to implement total workflow automation in respect government transaction. under the current procedure, the fund settlement at cas nagpur takes place after the rendering of accounts by the focal point branches to the local pao. the focal point branches receive the scrolls and the documents from the dealing branches by post ( normally by registered post ). this means that settlement of funds is inevitably delayed for the period of postal transit plus the time for consolidation at focal point branch creating a lag in final accounting in government account with cas nagpur. during this lag, the funds remain in pipeline as a float at the cost of government departments. often, the banks also suffer opportunity loss due to delay in monetary settlement. with the computerization of transactions both at the bank branches and government departments, it would be possible to reengineer the process. forwarding of paper scroll / receipted challans and paid cheques to government offices could take place at a later stage than the electronic transmission of transactions. this means that the focal point branch would transmit the transactions to cas nagpur without waiting for the scrolls received from the branches to be consolidated and verified. the committee on technology upgradation in banking sector examined this aspect and felt that this would help in quicker finalisation of government account and fund settlement at cas nagpur. the issue remains open. interaction with states a forum has been provided by the reserve bank bringing all the finance secretaries of state governments and the union for exchange of ideas and sorting out the problems. these conferences are held in reserve bank for the last few