President Yoweri Museveni has called upon the leaders of Rubirizi District to help people in their communities move from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture so that all wananchi improve their household incomes.
The President made the appeal last evening during a meeting with Rubirizi District leaders at his country home in Rwakitura, Kiruhuura District. Rubirizi District is in South Western Uganda and comprises 2 constituencies of Bunyaruguru and Katerera.
“You must wake up your people to start commercial farming and leave subsistence farming. Anyone with land should go into commercial farming,” he said.
President Museveni stressed that people should get out of the practice of growing food only for consumption but focus more on commercial agriculture.
He advised the leaders to promote the adaption of the four-acre model of farming to people with small pieces of land.
Under the four-acre model of farming, a farmer can use one acre for cash crops such as coffee; allocate another acre for fruit production, the third acre for dairy production, piggery or poultry and the last one for food crops such as maize, beans among others.
The President informed the leaders that wananchi with small pieces of land should desist from growing cash crops like cotton and tobacco because such products do yield reasonable profits like people who cultivate the same crops on huge pieces of land.
“Cotton is important for the country but only profitable for people with big pieces of land,” he observed.
Still on agriculture, the President called upon families to stop dividing their land into smaller pieces upon the death of parents.
He advised them to adapt the culture of sharing property from the consolidated pieces of land through shares so that they benefit from the profits after the sale of farm produce.
Mr. Museveni also advised the people of Bunyaruguru County against catching young fish, which he said, had reduced the fish stock in Lake George and Lake Edward.
He called for control of the number of fishermen on the 2 lakes through the issuance of fishing licenses.
He explained that just like cattle keepers plan for the number of cattle to keep in a kraal, even the lakes must be planned for.
“The fisheries people should tell us how much fish is in a square meter and the reproduction rate to determine the number of people to allow to fish on the lake,” he said.
On employment, President Museveni called upon the people Rubirizi not to focus on public service jobs for wealth creation but rather on the business sector that has no limit on the number of people that it can employ.
“Government jobs have a limit while the business sector has no limit. The number of jobs for Resident District Commissioners is known because the number of districts in the country is known,” he said.
The President said that government would give capacity to businesses to develop so as to create employment opportunities.
President Museveni also urged the people of Rubirizi District to conserve Queen Elizabeth National Park adding that the community should look at the Park as a source of wealth for them and the country through tourism.
“The Park has brought so much development to the community. I found 3 hotels in the Park. There is so much money that the Park can generate through tourism. We all need to protect the Park,” he emphasized.
He explained that Uganda receives 1 million tourists annually and US$1.5 billion from tourism.
He said that these figures could go up if the neighboring communities conserve the Parks.
President Museveni donated Shs.30 million to Bunyaruguru Youth and Women SACCOs.
He also gave 20 cows to different religious leaders to establish dairy farms at Parish level to enable wanainchi learn from in dairy farming.
