MASINDI – The government has supported five cooperatives with more than Shs 900 million under the Agriculture Cluster Project (ACDP).
The money is supposed to be used for the construction of shelters for the post-harvest machinery and the purchase of the machinery for farmer organizations.
Speaking during the ACDP annual review meeting at Education Hall in the district, Job Byaruhanga, the Masindi District Agriculture Officer noted that the five cooperatives include; Masindi District Farmers’ Association, Bwijanga Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative, Gukwatamanzi Farmers’ Cooperative, Pakanyi Grain Area Cooperative Enterprise and Bujenje Maize Farmers’ Cooperative.
Byaruhanga added that the total value of grants of the five farmer organizations is Shs1.4 billion adding that this includes; Shs 949 million for government and Shs 467 million contribution from the beneficiary farmer organizations.
He said that a total of Shs 485 million government subsidy has already been disbursed for construction of the shelters for the post-harvest machinery.
“Construction works which include building structures, roofing, plastering, and fixing of doors has been completed on all project sites and the request for payment of machinery to the contractors has been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF),” said Byaruhanga.
According to Byaruhanga, Bujenje Maize Cooperative Society is supposed to get a total of Shs 147 million, Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative Shs 229 million, Gukwatamanzi Cooperative Society Shs 206 million, Masindi District Farmers’ Association Shs 166 million and Pakanyi Grain Dealers and Produce Area Cooperative Enterprise Shs 200 million.
He said the money so far disbursed is for the construction of shelters noting that the balance is for the procurement of the post-harvest machinery.
“This was a matching grant whereby farmers were also tasked to contribute such that they can benefit. The farmers contributed materials, buying land among other items,” he explained.
Byaruhanga said, at all the five farmer organizations, construction is going on and others are about to be completed.
However, Byaruhanga noted that Bwijanga Coffee Cooperatives and Bujenje Maize Farmers’ Cooperative have a challenge with power supply connection.
“The project sites are located far from the power line. Bujenje Maize Farmers’ Cooperative requires Shs 33 million to be connected, while Bwijanga Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative requires Shs 9 million which should be raised by the members,” explained Byaruhanga.
Road Construction
The project also aims at providing support to each cluster to make improvements in existing farm access roads.
According to Byaruhanga, such improvements will be focused on elimination of key choke points that regularly impede the inflow and outflow of farm inputs .
He added that a total of 24 kms is going to be worked upon in Pakanyi sub-county.
Farmers to get irrigation systems
Still under this matching grant, nine farmers are to be supported with irrigation systems.
According to Byaruhanga, this is being done to help coffee farmers to address drought stress on coffee trees during the dry season to address the climate change effect.
What farmers say;
According Benedicto Ssensaga, the Chairperson Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative Society Limited, the project has helped them understand the use of fertilizers and its proper application.
“Fertilizers supplied by ACDP are of high quality compared to the fertilizers sold by Agro-input dealers,” he added.
Background
ACDP project is a government project funded by World Bank to support farmers in five priority commodities namely; rice, beans, maize, cassava and coffee.
The program was rolled over to other 40 districts in the financial year 2019/2020. Masindi district came on board in the financial year 2019/2020.
Masindi district is clustered for growing maize and coffee under cluster ten.
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