Government advised on seedlings distribution

The Government has been advised to change strategy in seedlings distribution to a hungry population if the desired output is to be realized.

The advice was given by the project coordinator at the ministry of agriculture, Stephen Ojangole who argued that you can't supply seed beans for example to people who have slept hungry and out of season and expect better results.

"If you give a hungry person a seed and he has slept three-days without food. What do you expect of him?" Ojangole asked

The ministry of agriculture official was speaking during the first Uganda national project management conference at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Friday.

The conference was organized by Project Management Institute (PMI) under the theme: "Harnessing Project Management Techniques for the Development of Agriculture in Uganda."

He proposed that government should handle the food relief aspect first before embarking on agricultural input distribution.

"Can we start from relief first and move to input distribution," Ojangole suggested.

He also appealed to government to build the capacity of farmers before dishing out seedlings.

"Government should stop running with inputs but have the farmers' capacity built when he needs fertilizers," he said.

The agricultural input distribution is being spearheaded by Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) and managed by UPDF soldiers.

According to Ojangole already 60% of seedlings distributed to farmers have dried up.

He observed that the other challenge government faces is the delay of the delivery of inputs.

Ojangole called for private sector intervention in the handling of agricultural inputs distribution and increase of agriculture budget from 3.8% to 10% as per Abuja Declaration.

On her part Connie Masaba, project manager Vegetable Oil Development Project emphasized the importance of devising innovation techniques to mitigate climate change.

"Climate change is affecting the development of agriculture and therefore, need for knowledge and innovation through application of management techniques in countering it," Masaba told participants.

She advised farmers to solicit advice from the agricultural experts if they are to succeed in producing large quantity of produce to supply a bigger market.