The Ministry of Agriculture leadership and management have kicked off a five- day policy and strategy thinking retreat at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi.
Speaking at the officials opening ceremony on Wednesday, the Agriculture Minister, Frank Tumwebaze said that at the retreat, they will discuss sectoral policies, strategies and programs but also draw a harmonised blue print for the sector for the next five years.
“As a ministry, we want to unpack the various policies and programs and how we understand them. When we talk of increasing production and productivity, do we understand it the same way. The retreat will help harmonise our thinking about the sector,”Tuwmebaze said.
He explained that as part of the retreat, the ministry officials will discuss a new way of providing extension services to farmers in all parts of the country.
According to Minister Tumwebaze, unlike before, the ministry will now change the face of extension services to mean education of farmers on what to do and the best farming practices.
“We want to do agricultural education instead of extension farmers who will be delivering the knowledge to the farmers. We shall not only use district staff like the veterinary officers, fisheries officers and cross officers for extension services. We shall also use the private sector districts to delivery knowledge on agronomy, good yields and post harvesting handling among others,”Tumwebaze said.
“We shall teach farmers through partnerships with media but also partner with farmers who already know how to do it. The successful farmers will be partnered with to designate their farms as extension centres for others to learn from.”
Tumwebaze said that in the next five years, something must be done different to ensure all stakeholders benefit from agriculture but also to ensure the sector moves from the 21% contribution to at least 40% to the GDP.
“Our first priority is a correct plan and tell government and donors to fund our budget. We will scan through our budget to answer alignment issues and in case of any deficits, we will talk to parliament and government at large for more funding of the sector.”
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the third deputy Prime Minister, Rukia Isanga Nakadama who represented the Vice President, Jessica Alupo said the agricultural sector touches the lives of many people in the country, urging that there should be best practices.
She noted that with best practices in place, many other people would join and benefit from the sector but above all, government will also benefit.
