Busoga leaders want affirmative action for the region
by Isaac senabulya
Political leaders hailing from Busoga have expressed worry over the absence of tangible outputs from the National Agriculture Advisory Services(NAADs) programme in the villages across the region.
In a special consultative NAADs review conference held in Jinja Oparticipants including Parliamentarians,local government leaders and the clergy resolved to seek affirmative action from government to address the unique problems for the subregion.
The Speaker of Parliament and MP for Kamuli district Rt.Hon. Kadaga Rebecca in her address warned that the current condition of the people of Busoga is an indictment on all the leaders from the region.
“We need a special loan to address our specific needs as Busoga subregion.Other regions have benefitted already from selective programmes like NUSAF,PRDP,IFAD but Busoga remains an island.The whole country has benefitted from some programme.I’m demanding for Busoga,” she told participants.
The Speaker also expressed regret over the low rankings for Busoga in agriculture, health, education and food security.
“We are tired of being ashamed. We have to change the way we live. Our forefathers who didn’t go to school managed through cooperatives to save and lend to the now developed countries. As leaders we need to cause change to the region,” she said.
Rt.Hon.Kadaga joinned other political leaders for the region to show concern over the failure by the NAADs programme to transform lives in the villages.
“We are concerned NAADs has been in Uganda for some time but we can’t see the ouput in the villages.Many of the people who received NAADs animals couldn’t afford the expensive drugs and they lost the animals.NAADs should have a better package for the poor farmers,” Speaker Kadaga noted.
She urged the NAADs Secretariate to address the new wave of crop diseases like banana and coffee wilt that have caused a lot of frustration among the farming communities.
Rt.Hon.Kadaga tasked the Ministry of Agriculture to establish a zonal research center for the region’s ten districts to seek indepenedence from the current center in Buginyanya which is too detached from Busoga.
Lands Minister and MP Butembe county MP Hon.Daudi Migereko decried politicking by the people of Busoga saying it may be responsible for the current rankings for the region.
“Several visits by district leaders to better performing districts have not yielded any fruits.Leaders have to live by example. They need to work with NAADS to promote and supervise agricultural production in their villages,” he said.
NAADs coordinators in the region were blamed for poor enterprise selection,failure to ensure community ownership of the programme and the lack of close monitoring of activities.
Farmers appealed for technology to support agriculture based on irrigation by tapping from the river Nile.