Hon. Vincent Ssempijja, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), has advised farmers in Greater Masaka region to tap into government’s Shs 40bn fund under the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP).
Hon. Ssempijja said this during a monitoring tour of the region to rejuvenate farmer cooperatives in Mukungwe and Kabonera sub-counties. “We cannot achieve our development agenda in agriculture without cooperatives, therefore, we need farmers to come together for a common goal that is aimed at improving household incomes,” the minister said.
“We as government we are ready to support those who come together for a common goal, that is why you are now seeing projects like ACDP coming up to support you with storage facilities, value addition machinery and others.”
ACDP is a six-year [2016-2022] project implemented by MAAIF with support from the World Bank. The project development objective is: “To raise on-farm productivity, production and marketable volumes of selected agricultural commodities (Maize, Cassava, Rice, Coffee and Beans) in specified geographic clusters. To benefit from the Shs 40bn fund, farmers are required to form consortiums or value chains of 20 participants.
THE TOUR
During the tour, it was discovered that some farmers collude with middlemen to flout MAAIF’s post-harvest handling regulations on products such as maize and coffee by engaging in unhealthy drying and storage of the produce. In this regard, Hon. Ssempijja directed the police and sub-county chiefs to arrest those engaged in this vice, to ensure that our agricultural products are competitive on the regional and global markets
“The recent temporary ban on our agricultural products by Kenya, was not because of the quality rather abundant produce that may have impacted on domestic prices. However, we also need to self-reflect and see that we handle our produce after harvesting well,” noted Ssempijja. “So, we need more policing to enforce the right post-harvest handling measures.”
The farmers also appealed to Ssempijja to make extension services easily accessible to which he advised them to organise themselves into groups so that extension officers address their problems at once.