The Central Executive Member at the National Resistance Movement(NRM), James Tweheyo, has said Ugandans who refused to heed president Museveni's advice on the four-acre model are suffering in poverty.
The four acre model is aimed at fighting poverty and improving household incomes.
Tweheyo made the remarks while appearing on the NBS Spotlight UG show on Monday night. The discussion was under the topic: Assessing the NRM’s progress in implementing its 2022-2026 manifesto.
“At first they took it as a joke .When they saw president Museveni making a demonstration in Luwero showing them how they can do. We should appreciate the president. He gave a number (of demonstrations),”he said.
He explained that Ugandans who took heed of president Museveni advice on the four acre model have benefited from it hence improvement on their income but those who refused he said are suffering.
“We should count ourselves completely lucky as a country because agriculture saved us, even during the pandemic. Agriculture has been given priority. When you look at Parish Development Model (PDM) you will understand that our President is consistent,” he said.
He noted that there are many areas in Uganda that have received tractors to do excessive agriculture beyond the four acre model.
He noted that the head of state has been consistent in lifting people from poverty to a certain level where they can have money in their pocket.
Tweheyo cited PDM as one of the programmes aimed at fighting household poverty, adding that from the time the president entered into politics in 19760s, he has been consistent on the issue of fighting poverty among Ugandans.
While presiding over the International Women’s Day celebrations at Sanga Playground, Kiruhura District in March this year, president Museveni told Ugandans that it is very possible to fight poverty if they get involved in lucrative commercial agriculture such as dairy farming and the four-acre-model farm strategy.
He explained that when the families get out of poverty through commercial farming, manufacturing, services, ICT, the four sectors, it is easier to address all the other marginalised groups including the women.
President Museveni has been advocating for a robust approach towards agriculture.
The four acre-model entails putting coffee in one acre, fruits in the second acre, pasture for zero grazing Friesian cattle in one acre and food crops in one acre (bananas, cassava, etc). In the backyard, those interested could put poultry, a piggery and those near water, would do fish farming.
“These are activities that have got a huge global market that we have long ago confirmed and have a good return per acre, per annum. With these, we cannot go wrong,” Museveni said.
He noted that the four-acre model is part of what he called intensive agriculture which is designed to benefit the country particularly the smallholder.
“There are other products that the country needs, but do not fit in intensive agriculture. They come in what is called extensive agriculture getting small income per acre but doing it on a big scale. This is where maize, sugar-cane, cotton, ranching, tobacco, etc, come in. While the Parish Development Model (PDM) deals with the 4-acre model, Uganda Development Bank (UDB), will handle the extensive agriculture,” he said.
On this acre, the farmer should maximize the benefit of intercropping to ensure maximum yields.
This should be common with legumes that help in fixing the soil with nitrogen, intercropped with other plants at a given rate and design as recommended by experts.
On top of the above, the farmer can engage in backyard enterprises such as apiculture, mushroom-growing, and free-range chicken rearing.
NRM leaders believe that this farming model is capable of solving 90% of, if not all, problems that are facing farming communities.
On the four acres of land, these enterprises are interdependent where the cow can produce manure for the farming activities as well as the coffee husks to address the challenge of low fertilizer use and poor soil conditions.
This leaves the farmer with steady cash.