Gen Saleh (R) having an interaction with Catherine Lamwaka and Douglas Peter Okello the Omoro district chairperson at Labora Youth Development Center. All Photos by GNNA Editor
By GNNA Editor and Walter Okot
Omoro
Gen. Salim Saleh has directed immediate solutions to challenges hampering high productivity in the agriculture sector in Omoro district.
During the pass-out of cadre trainees in Omoro, leaders of the district presented to Gen. Saleh five challenges affecting high productivity in the agriculture sector.
Douglas Peter Okello, the Omoro district chairperson, cited that one of the challenges is the inability of the district farmers to use the eleven idle value-addition machines because they are not connected to electricity.
“Value addition equipment is not connected to power but as Omoro district our focus is to increase household production, increase production at a commercial level, to feed the stores but also ensure the value addition equipment are utilized,” Okello said.
Okello noted that some of the idle equipment was supplied under different government projects 10 years ago by the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF) to support farmers.
The machines include; four maize mills, a coffee huller, a milk cooler, an oil processor, and a chicken hatchery.
Other challenges are; inadequate storage facilities, limited financial services, mechanization, and co-share contribution towards the establishment of mini irrigation schemes.
Fixing the problem through LED
Stephen Tumwine, the senior development officer at the Local Economic Development (LED) Department Ministry of Local Government, said the machines are lying idle because they were handed over to private sectors who abandoned the machines after power bills increased.
Tumwine said the Ministry of Local Government has written to the Ministry of Energy requesting them to connect all value-added machine facilities across the country to power.
He, however, advised the Ministry of Energy to ease the bureaucracies involved in handling such matters, since farmers countrywide are facing electricity challenges.
However, Gen. Saleh interjected that in 2017, “we alerted the local government that there are redundant assets across all the districts of Uganda and up now you have never operationalized them.”
Gen. Saleh demanded to know if the LED entailed an agenda on how to operationalize the idle value-addition equipment.
”…because in Omoro they have got 17 value addition machines, but only six are working and they are working at 30%,” Gen Saleh, the Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation told Omoro district leaders.
Tumwine acknowledged that key government investments were dying because there were no strong committees under LED to monitor and revamp them
He explained that the committee will be composed of all heads of departments and chaired by the accounting officer, while monitoring of projects will be jointly executed unlike in the past where it was left at each departmental level.
After a long engagement, Gen. Saleh also demanded to know how much it would require to connect electricity to the 11 idle equipment.
“I read very funny statistics which say that 95% of Omoro is subsistence agriculture. But then in another report, I saw that the per capita GDP is 350 USD, and I don’t know how to marry the two,” he added.
The General, who kept pointing to an immediate action plan, said as people retired to their respective areas after the training, there should be a clear plan in terms of production, processing, and marketing so that the agencies of government know what to deal with.
Some of the agencies that attended the pass out included Uganda Development Corporation, which is the biggest investor in Northern Uganda with a 60% investment portfolio, UIA, the Microfinance Support Center, NAADS/OWC which is changing its outlook to value addition.
“I have brought you the agencies, the private sector but it seems you don’t have what to sell,” Gen. Saleh said.
Ministry of Energy on the spotlight
Francis Komakech Baguma, the principal engineer at Umeme, said they had not received any request from the district officials for an electricity connection.
“As soon as they give in their request, we shall come on the ground, do the scooping, costing, and present the costing to the district,” Baguma said.
However, Tumwine responded that the Ministry of Local Government has written to the Ministry of Energy requesting them to connect all value-added facilities across the country.
“There is a circular, I can avail to you Sir when you want it. But the Ministry of Energy has a lot of bureaucracy which we need to cut and this problem cuts across the entire country.”
“The Executive Director of NAADS has written himself to Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Local government has written, it pronounced itself all the value addition facilities do not have power. I think General, there is a problem in the Ministry of Energy that we need to correct,” Tumwine emphasized.
Gen. Saleh then assured the meeting that the issue of electricity connection would be handled accordingly, a pronouncement that sparked thunderous applause.
However, Solomon Muyita, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy told GNNA that the delay in electricity connection was due to budgetary limits.
Muyita regretted the delay but asked whoever wants a power connection to apply targeting the upcoming 2027 free connectivity with funding from the World Bank.
Directive on mechanization
Another critical issue that Gen. Saleh handled was the Omoro production model after the district chairperson acknowledged that 95% of Omoro’s population are subsistence farmers.
The chairperson said during a one-week engagement, they agreed to strengthen the institutional farming communities by mobilizing, empowering, and registering farmers into block farming groups to reduce subsistence farming.
To this effect, the OWC boss directed the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) to avail six tractors and other six walking tractors to the district to boost production. Currently, the district has seven tractors.
Lamwaka fronts 42 storage facilities
Catherine Lamwaka, the Woman Member of Parliament Omoro district, said the electricity should be connected to 42 storage facilities in the district so that farmers make good use of the stores.
Lamwaka also tasked the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre (NAGRIC) to help farmers get the right breed of chicken and pigs to produce the right quantity of products needed to support the value-addition machines.
She requested NAGRIC to use some of the existing sites to demonstrate to farmers the right breed to start multiplying since they have already got money from the Parish Development Model for such enterprises.
Lamwaka was also commended for championing the one-week course that ended Tuesday where over 500 Omoro district leaders and technical staff attended that cadre training from Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre Labora.
