PDM tour: Museveni gives Luuka farmers sh26m

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President Yoweri Museveni has expressed contentment that the Parish Development Model (PDM) programme has helped rural communities shift away from subsistence-based living towards more diversified, cash-based economic activities, thereby joining the money economy.

The President, who is on a PDM performance assessment tour in Busoga region, on January 22, 2025, visited Mukasa Eliot, a PDM farmer at Buwanda village, Nawampiti sub-county in Luuka district.

President Museveni arrives at PDM beneficiary farmer Eliot Mukasa's passion fruit garden in Nawampiti, Luuka district amidst a downpour. Dressed in a yellow t shirt is Eliot Mukasa. (PPU Photo)

Mukasa, who received shillings one million in the first phase of 2022/2023, ventured into commercial farming, focusing on passion fruits and vegetables, and later bought goats and some iron sheets for his house.

“I’m very happy to see that people are waking up. Now that I have come here to visit Mukasa, I would give him shillings 10 million so that he buys one acre of land at shillings five million and the remaining five million to buy more goats. I will also add him six million so that he buys a motorcycle to transport his goods,” Museveni said before handing over cash to Mukasa.

He also gave shillings 10 million to the other 10 farmers who converged at Mukasa’s home to receive and listen to President Museveni’s message of transformation that was started in the 1960s, at a time when very few people were involved in the money economy.

President Museveni talks to the people of Nawampiti during his PDM assessment tour at Eliot Mukasa's passion fruit garden in Nawampiti, Luuka district. (PPU Photo)

“You would find children sleeping on the mat, fighting for one blanket, no electricity in the homes and the children were not going to school,” the President stated, adding that in the 1960s in Ntungamo district, out of the 55 sub-counties, only a few families in like three sub-counties had an idea about commercial agriculture and had a few trees of coffee.

“In 1986, when we came back after fighting Idi Amin, we saw some of the little work we had done. We started with those balaalo (cattle keepers) of yours who behaved like Karimajong, shifting cows everywhere. They used to import milk from abroad. In the shops, you would find condensed milk from New Zealand and India, yet they had cows. You can imagine! I said that you people can change and become modern farmers. You must be exemplary by producing milk for selling,” President Museveni emphasized, noting that they later picked up through responding to various government programmes such as the Operation Wealth Creation, Bonna Bagaggawale, and now PDM, which directly supports farmers at the parish level.

President Museveni addresses some of the residents of Nawampiti in Luuka district on his arrival to visit PDM beneficiary Eliot Mukasa's passion fruit garden. (PPU Photo)

“I called the NRM caucus and Cabinet, and I introduced PDM where farmers would create their SACCOs and we send them money directly as we guide them on the profitable seven activities to focus on,” Museveni added, while commending Mukasa, who chose passion fruits and was able to harvest profits of shillings 600,000, which he later used to expand to also include livestock.

“The plan is to give shillings 100 million to 100 homesteads per year. In three years. We will have covered 300 homesteads, and still in the third year, those who would have got one million will be returning shillings 1.6 million. That means in five years, it will be 500 million per parish,” Museveni said.

Mukasa appreciated President Museveni for the financial boost of one million through the PDM that has changed his life.

Residents of Nawampiti in Luuka district express their excitment as they welcomed President Museveni to passion fruit farmer Eliot Mukasa's home in Nawampiti. (PPU Photo)

The Minister for Presidency, Babirye Milly Babalanda, welcomed President Museveni to Luuka and hailed the programme as the most successful in changing people’s lives.

According to Bugomba Nawampiti PDM Sacco chairperson Musongole Joseph, Mukasa is among the 217 members that have benefitted from PDM out of the 1,066 registered members in Nawampiti sub-county.

Luuka Resident District Commissioner Ronald Katende Kinene said their selection process is targeting the 36% of individuals who are still in subsistence farming, and to date, 64 SACCOs benefitted in the first phase 2022/2023.

Residents of Nawampiti in Luuka district express their excitment as they welcomed President Museveni to passion fruit farmer Eliot Mukasa's home in Nawampiti. (PPU Photo)

“We’re grateful that out of the first beneficiaries, Mukasa was among them whose dream has come true, and he’s becoming an example to many youth not only here at Buwanda but also in the whole parish,” Katende said.

PDM is an initiative introduced in Uganda in 2022 to reduce poverty at the grassroots. It seeks to shift people from subsistence farming and informal economy practices into a more integrated and formalized participation in the monetary economy.