Members of Parliament on the Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries have faulted the cooperative societies and districts leaders in Kalungu for failure to manage the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP).
The committee led by the Vice Chairperson, Hon. Agnes Atim Apea on an oversight visit to Kalungu District noted that the project has been mismanaged by district officials and the cooperative societies’ leadership. She added that the facilities constructed for coffee processing do not conform to the set standards prescribed in the guidelines and questioned the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer on why she did not halt the projects once she had seen the anomalies.
“There is inefficiency of the highest order because if you have a district engineer, your role is to supervise and from what we see here, there has been no supervision. And besides the district has a commercial officer who is supposed to supervise the farmers and ensure they are keeping the books of accounts,” Atim said adding that, ‘you cannot tell me you are coordinating a multi-billion project and you sit and watch this project stay the way it is now’.
In 2016, the Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries rolled out the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP) that was aimed at raising on-farm productivity, production, and marketable volumes of selected agricultural commodities in 57 districts
ACDP is a six year intervention partnership of the Government of Uganda and the World Bank intended to boost commercial production of five prioritized crops.
In Kalungu District, eight cooperative societies were supported with matching grants.
According to Kimaanya-Kabonera Division MP, Hon. Abed Bwanika, some groups were formed with the intention to swindle government money instead of the intended purpose of the project.
“There is gross connivance in the group leadership of some cooperatives because for the case of Zambogo group, the Mayor, Mr. Kiraggaga John doubles as the chairperson and the wife is the treasurer. Clearly there is a conflict of interest,” he said.
Kalungu East Member of Parliament, Hon. Francis Katabaazi said discrimination against political affiliation is one of the main reasons as to why the project is failing.
“The farmers were selected based on political affiliations and “godfathers”. This is why all this is happening and we are losing tax payers money because some people feel they will be protected by their godfathers,” Katabaazi said.
Patrick Mugabi, the District Agricultural Officer who also double as the ACDP focal person however, denied that the project is being mismanaged saying the successes achieved outweigh the challenges.
“The district has had a total investment worth Shs3.2 billion which government. Because of the effective mobilization and sensitization, 7,143 farmers belonging to 320 groups have benefited from this project,” he said.
Frederick Muwanguzi, the farms organization specialist from the ministry said that the eligibility criteria for selecting the groups to benefit from the project is bottom-top saying, the cooperatives supported were recommended by the district but that the groups needed to have some money in the account and contribute 10 per cent or more to the project.
The chairperson of Lwanbenge Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Society, Frank Nsibambi told the committee that the farmers have started realizing the benefits of the project and called for more funding.
“After the construction of the coffee processing facility, the road and extension of power, there has been an increased in the volume of coffee bulked and sold by the members of the cooperative to the exporting company called Edge Trading Company at Bugolobi in Kampala,” Nsibambi said.
He added that, ’in the first year of ACDP, we sold 127,864 kilogrammes and in this year, we have so far sold 110,064 kilogrammes and the year is just midway. So, we hope to even have better report at the end of this year 2022’.
A geographical cluster comprises an average of three districts that have proven production potential of at least two of the prioritized crops which are maize, Robusta coffee, rice, cassava, Arabica coffee and beans.
ACDP core beneficiaries were projected to be 450,000 smallholder farmers drawn from approximately 300 area based Commodity Cooperative Enterprises (ACCE) and other chain actors at local, district, and national level.
ACDP is funded by the World Bank (US$150 million), the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industries and Fisheries (US$28 million) and contribution from the farmers themselves (US$70 million).
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