The Central Buganda Diocese has received sh70m from the National Agriculture Advisory Services to procure a ginger processing machine. 

The money was on Wednesday handed over to the Diocese’s Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Micheal Lubowa by the Church of Uganda Provincial Secretary, Rev. Can. William Ogeng at St. John's Cathedral, Kasaka in Gomba District. 

Lubowa in his remarks lauded government for supporting the social-economic transformation of the Diocese. 

“The President and government of Uganda have been very kind to us. Recently, we received 200 pigs, 40 heifers and today we have received sh70m for a ginger processing machine,” he said. 

He noted that in the  Diocese, especially in Butambala District, ginger is the main cash crop grown and farmers have been making loses in exporting raw harvest. 

“We are now going to process it from here, add more value to it and get more money. We want to chase poverty," Lubowa said. 

He vowed to transform the Diocese into a self-sustainable model Diocese with excellence in agriculture, household incomes and community resilience. 

Lubowa used the opportunity to show the visiting team from the Provincial Secretariat  the Diocese's coffee, banana plantation, the Diocesan farm (with cows, pigs, chicken and goats), the Maize mill and the newly constructed Bishop's Palace. 

He revealed that the Diocese is set to construct a Pension House to generate revenue to support the retired clergy, and Diocesan workers and advance the self-sustainability agenda of the Diocese. 

Rev. Ongeng advised the Diocese to ensure proper accountability and transparency during the implementation of the project. 

He commended the Diocese for the already established projects and noted that this is one of the reasons why the Diocese was identified a pilot area for the project together with South Ankole Diocese, West Lango Diocese, Kitgum Diocese and Busoga Diocese. 

Speaking at the same function, Balaam Muheebwa, the Provincial Treasurer called upon the Diocese to take good care of the cows, pigs and ginger plant given to them to ensure that all Christians in the Diocese benefit. 

He disclosed that Church of Uganda received sh2b from the government through NAADS and will be used to implement agriculture programs in the Province. 

Irene Anena, Acting Director of Church of Uganda's Directorate of Household and Community Transformation tipped the Diocesan leadership to embrace agriculture. 

"Agriculture being the backbone of Uganda's economy, we need to invest time and resources to it as a strategy for socio-economic transformation. This also calls for mindset change and the appreciation for value chain development. This will ensure community empowerment on food and income security,” she said. 

She urged all the beneficiaries of the project to ensure compliance with the implementation modalities of the project and transfer the offsprings of livestock they received to the second line of beneficiaries as a means of spreading out wealth creation in their communities. 

The agriculture programme is aimed at mobilizing, equipping and positioning the church’s religious leaders, and community/farmers and farmer groups as community mobilizers, and to act as mindset agents to tackle mindset change toward agro-industrialization.  

It was also designed to rally Church of Uganda leaders, congregations and the community towards agricultural production of priority crops for food and nutrition security and improved incomes. 

The project also strives to support households of the church leaders, congregations and community agricultural production, post-harvest handling, value addition and support linkages to markets in priority agricultural commodities. 

The support from NAADS is a fulfillment of a Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 24, 2022 between the entity and the Church to strengthen agriculture production in the Province. 

Government subsequently injected sh2b in the church to establish farmer demonstration and learning hubs for selected enterprises in the Province, training farmer groups on appropriate agronomic practices for selected crop enterprises and other activities.