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HARVEST MONEY

If you are in the agricultural value chain, you should have no other programme, apart from the Harvest Money Expo, which kicks off today at the Kololo Independence Grounds.

The expo will bring together all stakeholders in the agricultural sector, where important lessons across the agriculture value chain will be shared and learnt from the almost 200 exhibitors who have already set camp at Kololo.

Hundreds of participants are expected at the expo. They include farmers, students, agro-entrepreneurs and all other interested Ugandans.

Students interested will learn from their colleagues who are already practising farming and will also exhibit and train.

The exhibiting schools include Gayaza High School and Iganga Secondary School. The expo will end on Sunday.

The Vision Group chief executive officer, Don Wanyama, thanked all the sponsors, partners and stakeholders for walking the journey with Vision Group to the launch of the eighth edition of the Harvest Money Expo.

Vision Group chief executive officer, Don Wanyama

“We assure you that whoever comes to Kololo will get what they expect. We have hundreds of companies, government agencies, financial and other regulating institutions in one place. There will be a lot to share and learn,” he noted.

Wanyama said there will be 27 training sessions during the three days of the expo, where experts will share critical information with farmers that will enable them to improve their farming and management practices, such that production and productivity is increased.

During the launch, agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze lauded Vision Group for the expo, which he said creates a platform that brings together all the agriculture sector players to discuss and share relevant information that transforms the sector.

“Vision Group’s editor-in-chief, Barbara Kaija, one day told me that development journalism requires a lot of money. But we are happy that despite all that, the company can still foot the bills and organise this expo, which has greatly contributed to the development, transformation and mindset change of Ugandans, especially the youth,” he noted.

Minister of Agriculture Frank Tumwebaze

He said as a ministry, they believe that knowledge transfer is crucial in the transformation of the sector as people start doing things the right way after acquiring knowledge from the expo, which in turn improves production and productivity.

He expressed gratitude towards the great milestone achieved by Tunga Nutrition, which has started processing and producing feed concentrates and finished feeds, which have for long been imported. He said this would make the livestock business more profitable, as the cost of feeds would go down.

“Poultry is one of the biggest employers of Ugandans, especially the youth, but many have been running away because of the high cost of feeds,” he said.

He called upon all agricultural stakeholders to share their views concerning the agriculture Bill before it is passed into law.

“The bill aims at protecting the health of the people and animals consuming agricultural products, but also genuine processors from the fake ones who have for long jeopardised the business such that we create a sustainable and safe food industry for everybody,” he noted.

SPONSORS

The 2024 Harvest Money Expo is organised by Vision Group with

sponsorship from the Netherlands embassy, Tunga Nutrition, National Agricultural Advisory Services, Engineering Solutions, the Korea International Cooperation Agency and TechnoServe.

Others are the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, State House Uganda, Private Sector Foundation Uganda, AKVO-International, dfcu Bank, TAFE, Uganda Investment Authority, Uganda Warehouse Receipt Systems, K-ABIC, HortiMAP and Pepsi Cola.