Input distribution to farmers continues amidst the COVID 19 scare


Uganda reported its first case of COVID-19 on March 22nd, 2020 and immediately after, H.E the President of Uganda ordered restrictions on movement of people, cars, motor cycles and closure of shops and all non-food stores for 14 days to contain the spread of COVID 19. The immediate impact of the shut- down was the survival of most citizens whose livelihoods depend on daily income, small businesses and subsistence farming. In addition, production, supply and demand to the markets slowed down thus threatening food security during both the lockdown period and post lockdown.

The directive also brought to a halt the distribution of inputs in the districts, yet under the e-subsidy program, farmers had already paid their contributions towards the costs of Inputs. The Ministry of
agriculture through ACDP had also topped up subsidies to the accredited agro-input dealers to provide inputs to farmers. At the time of the presidential directive, most of the farmers were yet to receive their inputs.

Agriculture in Uganda depends on natural rainfall patterns and if the lockdown persists, farmers will miss a whole year of income and food. It was also estimated that more than 50% of the gardens would not be planted, if farmers did not receive their inputs during this planting season resulting into food shortages for the rest of the year. On the input market side, various Agro-input dealers would lose business. It is also expected that post corona will be worse if our food security is compromised. 

Farmer washes hands before receiving inputs- Ntungamo district
It is against this background that the Agriculture Cluster Development Project Coordination unit found it imperative to continue with input distribution, while observing the presidential directives and the standard operating guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and other relevant authorities.
 
Farmer carries off their input- Bumbaire  sub-county- Bushenyi district
ACDP/MAAIF teams have continued to work with the District teams to distribute inputs to farmers with permission from the respective Resident District Commissioners.


The ACDP Project Coordination Unit extends its sincere gratitude and applauds all the ACDP/MAAIF Clusters Coordinators, District agricultural and Extension officers, the Resident District Commissioners, security organs, UBA officers, the farmers and all stakeholders who put service above self and enabled the distribution exercise to continue despite the COVID 19 scare.

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Doho Irrigation Farmers’ Cooperative Society upgrades their rice storage facility

Image
  Introduction Doho Irrigation Farmers’ Cooperative Society (DIFACOS) are ACDP cohort three matching grantees. This seven year old Cooperative Society is under the mandate of   Ministry of Water and Environment in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and replaced the management committee in 2014. Butaleja district where this scheme is found a potential rice growing area and has water throughout the year supplied by the three rivers of   Manafa, Mpologoma and Namatala. DIFACOS members are all rice farmers and are enrolled in the e-Voucher system. In 1997, the infrastructure at Doho irrigation rice scheme was washed away and this led to government intervention   of improving the irrigation scheme to control the flood waters. As a result 98% of the farm plots receive water for irrigation. Matching grant In 2021, DIFACOS became beneficiaries of a total grant of    UGX   373,134,328   with government contribution of   250 million   and the cooperative co-financing   of    UG
Read more

Stakeholder Consultative Workshop for developing a GIS Knowledge base for Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries held at Ridar Hotel, Kampala – Uganda

Image
Introduction To develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) Knowledgebase for MAAIF, a stakeholder a consultative workshop was organized to assess GIS data availability and needs in the different MAAIF sub-sectors.  Thereafter a field data exercise would be organized to collect geographic location information for the Agriculture Cluster Development Project interventions implemented. The objective of the consultative workshop was to; -        Assess the availability of GIS data. -        Assess the data needs if the different MAAIF sub-sectors. -        Create a common understanding of GIS principles. -        Assess the capacity to use GIS techniques. What is Geographical Information Systems (GIS)? A geographic information system is a framework for gathering, managing and analyzing data. Rooted in the science of geography, GIS integrates many types of data. It analyzes spatial location and organizes layers of information into visualizations us
Read more

Monica Higenyi reaps big from bumper harvests

Image
  Introduction Monica Higenyi is a model famer in Butaleja district, she started farming by growing vegetables and vending. She also used to make and sell herbal medicine. Mr Were, the DAO says, “ This is when   I noticed her and gave her 10 bags of cassava   cuttings to plant. Then we came back and bought the cuttings from her. I noticed she was very hardworking   farmer and was eager to grow and learn”. Monica and her husband Patrick Higenyi   enrolled in the ACDP   late in 2019. While Monica enrolled for maize, her husband enrolled for cassava.   To enroll in the e-Voucher program, they each paid a membership of   UGX 148, 500 and were trained on good agronomic practices. Benefits   According to Monica, they were taught   how to plant a maize variety called ‘Bazoka’. Maize is usually sold at a low price but because of the variety I planted the produce is of high quality and I was able to sell at a high price.   I used to plant maize before but the profits were not high”. T
Read more