Busia district residents have been urged to embrace the area's value-addition plant as a Parish Development Model programme (PDM) programme centre for production processing and marketing.

PDM is the latest poverty alleviation programme by the Government of Uganda

Local government ministry permanent secretary Benjamin Kumumanya has also encouraged the residents and the neighbouring districts to engage in production in order to sell produce to the facility and meet its daily production capacity of 3,000 metric tonnes.

Kumumanya made the call on Friday during the handover of the high-level value addition facility worth sh15b to Rwahi Investment Ltd, the firm going to run the facility.

The sh15b Busia value-addition plant.

"A presidential pledge has been delivered. All things including value additional and increased household income President Yoweri Museveni is always talking about, are represented in this facility," Kumumanya said, adding the facility is aimed at repositioning seed in the production chain.

He added that there is potential for maize production in and outside Busia to enable the facility to produce for both local and international markets and particularly export to South African Countries where there is great demand for maize.

The value-addition plant is a component of Busia Main Market constructed at sh25b under the second Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Project programme, with funding from the Government of Uganda and the African Development Bank.

The facility has a storage capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes and it also sorts, cleans, dries, mills and grades corn and grain.

Transforming the lives of residents

Busia Resident District Commissioner Michael Kibwika said the Government injected sh40b into the constitution of market and value addition plant with the aim of economically transforming the lives of the residents.

He said now that the facility is operational, there is no need of sending 70 trucks carrying processed maize to Kenya daily. According to him, that produce can be absorbed by the facility.

Busia district chairperson Stephen Mugeni Wasike requested the operator to be flexible by producing according to the residents demand: "Please do what we tell you to do".

Selected enterprises

Wasike said Busia has identified and selected poultry, piggery and fishing farming as the main enterprises under PDM and requested the operator to supply chicken, piggery feeds and fish mault to enable residents benefit from the programme.

Wasike also reminded the operator that he has acquired the facility at a lower price than they would have constructed it through a loan and, therefore, they should not harass traders with high rates.

Casbert Tukundane the director Rwahi Investment Ltd, said they intend to identify farmers, group them into co-operatives and sensitise them on post-harvest handling, supply seeds and fertilisers as a way of improving yield.

" We shall have reduced prices at any level of production and have the best prices in the market to promote government programmes and offer good service to the people," Tukundane said.

The facility will be paying sh9.2m monthly to the Busia Municipal Council for four year. The operator will also be charged with the maintenance of the facility.

PDM at a glance

PDM is a multi-ministerial and state-agencies approach to development as envisaged under the National Development Plan III.

Here, the parish is the lowest administrative and operational hub for delivering services closer to the people to foster local economic development.

The PDM programme was launched in 2022 in Kibuku district under the theme: Transformation from Subsistence to Monetary Economy through Increased Production and Productivity for Improved Household Incomes and Livelihood.

The programme targets the 39% of Ugandans who are engaged in subsistence agricultural spectrum zoned at the parish level with an aspiration to transform them into the money economy.