Overhaul NAADS - farmers’ boss

Sep 13, 2007

THE National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) needs to be overhauled. Frank Tumwebaze, the Uganda National Farmers Association (UNFA) chairman, said NAADS also needed a clear mandate that demands measurable indicators of performance.

By Henry Mukasa

THE National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) needs to be overhauled. Frank Tumwebaze, the Uganda National Farmers Association (UNFA) chairman, said NAADS also needed a clear mandate that demands measurable indicators of performance.

He further called for the re-alignment and harmonisation of its programmes.
“When you say NAADS is advisory, such services might not be easily measured. The solution is re-thinking the entire policy that governs the sector. There is a lot of confusion and lack of harmonisation of programmes. That is why the President asks, ‘where are the results?”

Tumwebaze, who is also the MP for Kibaale in Kamwenge district, said NAADS, like the National Agricultural Research Organisation is a pillar of the Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), which is a component of the Poverty Eradication Action Plan.

The farmers’ boss however questioned the rationale with which NAADS was established with an act of Parliament yet PMA was not. “NAADS was left hanging in the air,” he asserted.

Tumwebaze pointed out that the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), meant to help farmers recover from the adversity of war was uncoordinated.

“Why should it be under the Prime Minister’s Office yet this office is supposed to be the final inspectorate of the Government policies and programmes? That office should be the one telling Ugandans that NAADS or NUSAF are performing or not.

“We would not be referring to a probe. But where you find the Prime Minister’s Office operating like a ministry and implementing programmes, its a total confusion,” Tumwebaze said.

He added that programmes meant to help farmers should be based in their line ministry.

NAADS’ first funding phase was $108m. Its donors included the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the European Union, the Department for International Development, the Netherlands and Denmark.

The Netherlands embassy’s head of development cooperation, Michael Rentenaar, said donors had been closely following the re-orientation debate about NAADS.

“Let us await for the outcome of the Cabinet meeting on September 19,” Rentenaar said.

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