A Senior Presidential Advisor on Busoga affairs, Florence Mutyabule, has asked leaders of Jinja City and district to support the government initiative at Kasolwe Stock Ranch.
Ms Mutyabule was at the offices of the Resident City Commissioner in Kakindu, Jinja City where she met RCCs and RDCs of Jinja as well as the technical staff including Chief Executive Officer of the district, divisional mayors, production and veterinary officers among others.
The SPA said the stock farm had been equipped and restocked with modern farm solutions which she wants farmers in Busoga area to embrace, in order to eliminate the high levels of poverty in the region. She is set to spend the whole of this week speaking to different leaders in districts making up Busoga sub region.
Located 15km from Kamuli Town, Kasolwe Stock farm is run by National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRC&DB) and it is an intervention aimed at poverty alleviation in the region which is regarded as the most suffering from abject poverty.
Ms Mutyabule said the stock farm was preparing pigs, goats, poultry, cattle, and fish stocks as well as their feeds, to help uplift the households in Busoga out of the biting poverty.
She further noted that the people of Busoga should not blame God or Government for not supporting them to rise from their condition, but themselves who are doing nothing about their situation.
Jinja RCC Hon Saleh Kamba said to find a lasting solution for successful government projects in the region, there should be deliberate ideological orientation for middle managers in Busoga who said, were not doing enough in service delivery.
“Government Programs don’t reach the intended people because they are mismanaged by middle level managers,” Hon Kamba said. He said middle level managers’ due the rampant corruption and financial indiscipline the wanainchi keep complaining about.
He urged that with a right mindset, people exploiting the poverty in Busoga will be outwitted and lead to stability of human and state security.
Ms Mutyabule was lauded for involving various leaders to look for solutions for improving and bettering livestock keeping in the region.
After meeting different stakeholders in the various districts making up Busoga, the presidential advisor promised to organise an overall meeting of all stakeholders at the Farm itself. She called on the political and technical leaderships of the district and city to support the project.
NAGRC&DB is partnering with Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) programme to transform agriculture from a subsistence sector into a commercial industry in line with the National Development Plan III.
Dr Peter Beine, the NAGRC&DB executive director, says the livestock sub-sector is a significant player in the economy, which must be enhanced to create more wealth and jobs for people.
“A time has come for us to adapt our cultures to the needs of today. We must embrace new technologies in order to upscale our farming for quality production, if we are to survive and compete in the global market.”
About the farm
This is one of the national ranches established in 1965 to conserve the indigenous short-horned Zebu cattle. Initially, the farm was for citrus, which failed due to insufficient water for irrigation.
The farm occupies 2,000 hectares of land and currently has 986 head of cattle, of which 64 are crosses of Jersey and Friesians, 922 short-horned Zebu and 740 small East Africa goats.
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