Gen Saleh says the economic activities being coordinated by NAADS and Operation Wealth Creation should be centralized under a government authority known as the National Agriculture Logistics Authority (NALA) for better efficiency and outputs.
The National Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation Gen. Salim
Saleh is calling for fresh restructuring of the National Agricultural Advisory
Services (NAADS).
Gen Saleh says the economic activities being coordinated by NAADS and Operation
Wealth Creation should be centralized under a government authority known as the
National Agriculture Logistics Authority (NALA) for better efficiency and
outputs.
Gen. Charles Angina, the Deputy National Operation Wealth Creation Coordinator
says Gen. Saleh wants the new authority to be known as the National Agriculture
Logistics Authority (NALA).
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It is the second time government is proposing complete overhaul of the
National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS). In 2014, President Yoweri
Museveni made the NAADS Secretariat lean by directing Ministry of Agriculture
to disband NAADS structures at district and sub-county levels.
The restructuring introduced Operation Wealth Creation under military
supervision to undertake nationwide input distributions and mobilization of
farmers. About, five years later, Operation Wealth Creation is trapped in a sea
of challenges that have seen late deliveries of inputs, circulation of fake
inputs among others.
Gen. Charles Angina says they would like Ministry of Agriculture to take over
procurement of farm inputs and certification of seeds to eliminate counterfeit
farm inputs.
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Gen. Angina says Operation Wealth Creation Secretariat is also proposing
the creations of farmer Service Centres to coordinate distributions of farm
inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, tractors and agro-processing equipment to
eliminate private agro-input dealers exploiting farmers.
Gen. Angina says the military has been directed to commence
implementation of the second phase of operation wealth creation involving
transformation of primary producers into clusters of farmer cooperatives
capable of industrialized agriculture processing around the country.
He says under the initiative, various committees will be formed
to govern activities of farmer clusters.
“One of the committees will be the Finance Committee in charge of managing the
financial resources of farmer clusters. The other will be the supervisory
committee and the technical committee for operating the tractors for
mechanization of agriculture” he explained to journalists at the side-line of a
review workshop convened to evaluate the performance of NAADS in Kampala.
Dr Samuel Mugasi, the Executive Director of NAADS says it is
difficult to comment on the proposal calling for fresh restructuring of NAADS
Secretariat because it requires a parliamentary decision. He says the Ministry
of Agriculture is in a better position to respond to the proposals based on the
impacts NAADS has created on the ground.
Dr Mugasi says the major challenge affecting agriculture in the country
is climate change and the National Agriculture Research Organization should put
its feet on ground to develop climate-resilient technologies.
Major Tabaro Kiconco, the Operation Wealth Creation spokesperson
says the strategic direction that Operation Wealth Creation plans to take is to
develop agroecological clusters necessary for supporting industrialization of
the country.
Tabaro says in each of the farmer service centres due to be set up
in 18 agro-ecological zones of Uganda, farmers will be able to access tractors
on hire, extension services, quality seeds as well as market information.
