The Minister of State for Animal Industry, Bright Rwamirama, has expressed concern over the increasing cases of encroachment on land belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture by people including local council leaders.

Speaking at Njeru Stock Farm in Buikwe district on Monday, Rwamirama said disputes on the ministry’s land across the country affect the progress of development programmes while causing huge losses to the government.

He said Njeru Stock Farm in particular has had a lot of wrangles as a result of land grabbing with certain individuals illegally acquiring titles on part of the farm.

“The problem here has been land grabbing and it started with leaders of Njeru Town Council. I expect the leadership to protect this resource which is the only one of its kind in this region,” he said, adding that he was optimistic the wrangles would end in the government’s favour.

Rwamirama made the remarks while officiating at the commissioning of the Trypanosomiasis Control Resource Centre that was established on a 4-acre piece of land at the farm, donated by the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries.

Phase one of the project cost Sh400 million but the entire project including the construction of accommodation facilities, libraries and laboratories will cost sh4b, according to Dr Mandela Wangoola, the head of the Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council (UTCC).

During the ceremony, Rwamirama also commissioned a group of 20 people equipped with skills in making Tsetse fly traps, noting that locally made traps would save the country the burden of importing them from Vietnam.

“In Kyankwanzi and Nakaseke we have applied both acaricides and nets and the results have been positive so we hope to roll it out to other parts,” he said.

Wangoola explained that the council had registered great strides in controlling Tsetse flies and sleeping sickness in humans revealing that in the past 20 months, only one person had been diagnosed with the disease without any death.

He added that the major focus would now be on controlling Nagana in livestock with a lot of emphasis put on fighting the vectors in National Game Parks and around water bodies where they thrive best.

Prof. Charles Waiswa the director of the Coordinating Office for the Control of Trypanosomiasis in Uganda (COCTU) was optimistic that apart from Tsetse fly traps, the resource centre would be used to domesticate other services such as the manufacture of livestock drugs.

He added that their target was to eliminate Nagana which he noted causes huge losses to livestock farmers, by 2030.

He also said the centre shall benefit not only Uganda but neighbouring countries as well since Trypanosomiasis cuts across borders.

Charles Otim, the UTCC chairman observed that the establishment of the resource centre was a landmark in efforts to eliminate Trypanosomiasis. He stressed that accurate data was key in the campaign.