Members of the farmers’ cooperatives have been passed out after being trained in modern farming technologies to enable them to engage in commercial farming and also improve food security in their households.
The farmer groups from Busia and Namayingo districts underwent a two-month training conducted by Busia farmers association.
Training equipped farmers with skills of using local materials to make organic fertilizers and manures in their gardens so as to achieve high productivity per unit of the land utilized.
According to Stephen Wafula a trainer with Busia farmers’ association, the training will enable farmers to produce enough food for their families and for sale, to address cases of malnutrition which are rampant in Busia and Namayingo.
Wafula said the training was aimed at changing the mindset of the farmers by enabling them to learn how to plant, harvest and market their produce.
Speaking at the pass out, the district chairperson Geoffrey Wandera decried the increasing supply of counterfeit agricultural products in the market.
Wandera said the fake inputs including fertilizers and seeds have greatly impoverished the farmers that spend through the nose to purchase them hoping to achieve high yields.
He said the skills of using organic fertilizers given to the farmers was timely to save them from being fleeced by the sellers of fake agricultural technologies.
Wandera however, called upon the farmers to sustain the good practices noting that they can cause real transformation in the communities leading to increased productivity.
The area deputy resident district commissioner Paul Kalikwani appealed to farmers to add value to their products and stop giving it away at low prices.
He encouraged the beneficiaries not to be selfish, buy training their colleagues that didn’t attend the training so as to uplift the farming standards in the district.
