Local leaders in Nabilatuk district have delayed the idea of giving out tractors for hire to other districts in Karamoja Subregion, due to high demand for the machines by local farmers.
The machines have performed impressively beyond expectations, something which has provoked high demand by other local farmers in the district, delaying their rotation to other districts in Karamoja Subregion, something that has created a sharp rift between Nabilatuk local leaders and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF).
It should be noted that in April 2023, MAAIF launched a tractor hire scheme in Nabilatuk district to prop up food production and ward off the threat of food insecurity in Karamoja Subregion.
According to the scheme, ten tractors were delivered for the pilot study that was supposed to last for three weeks in Nabilatuk, after which they would be given out for hire to farmers in other districts.
Unfortunately or fortunately, efforts to have these tractors rendered to farmers in other districts have hit a snag, with the overwhelming demand for their services in Nabilatuk.
Local leaders in Nabilatuk have now vowed never to allow them cross to other districts, before they meet farming needs of the current beneficiaries. These leaders say their farmers are not ready to give away tractors, something which has sparked off a serious rift with MAAIF.
Demand for these tractors, according to local leaders has drastically increased over the last three weeks, with farmers scrambling to till virgin lands and prepare for farming to catch up with the rainy season which is about to end.
In an interview with Uganda Radio Network (URN), Paul Lokol, the LCV Chairperson of Nabilatuk district contended that since the district was singled out for the pilot study, there is no need to hastily deploy them to other districts before effectively assessing the success of the scheme.
He added that currently, demand for these tractors among local farmers has shot up exponentially and taking them out to other districts would be detrimental to farming initiatives of the locals, who have not opened their farmlands.
Jacinta Ayo, the Nabilatuk Deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC) argued that the machines should be deployed to other districts after sufficiently meeting farming demands in the district, saying that other districts in the region should utilize machines already deployed there by MAAIF, instead of focusing on those in Nabilatuk
Local leaders also contend they their target is to plough at least 2,000 acres of farmlands before giving them out to other districts, a target which they are far away from achieving.
Commenting about the scheme rift, Joseph Otita, the LCIII Chairperson of Rupa Sub County in Moroto district remarked that though the tractor hire scheme was a good idea, it was poorly planned and implemented.
He said that the region has only one season of rain and rotating the tractors in all districts cannot help farmers to beat the deadline for rains. He suggested that the government could have distributed at least five tractors per district, not on a rotational basis.
In Moroto district, farmers say they have resolved to using hand hoes, instead of waiting for tractors which have taken considerably long to arrive in their area, and decried bureaucracy in the tractor scheme, which they say will hamper the initiative goal of extinguishing food insecurity in Karamoja.
In a dramatic twist, Dr Paul Okullo, the Director of Research at Nabuin Zonal Agriculture Research Institute in charge of the scheme said that although there was an initial plan to rotate the tractors in all districts, Nabilatuk was a target by the government for the pilot study.
He said that the district has many commercial farmers and they will want to use their experience and the outputs to assess the performance of the project before rolling it out to the whole region.
The tractors in question are said to have been mobilized from Namalere Agricultural Research Center (NARC), and are being manned by Nabuin Zonal Agricultural Research Institute.
Local farmers hire these machines at a rate of UGX. 80,000 per acre, which has proven affordable for most of them, increasing demand for their services.
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