SERERE, July 23, 2024 – The Vice President, Jessica Alupo Epel has asked local leaders in Serere district to mobilise the youth to embrace commercial agriculture as a pathway out of poverty and unemployment.
According to Alupo, government jobs are not enough for all the youth in the country, adding that commercial agriculture is one of the activities that can improve the livelihoods of the youth.
She said activities like agribusiness if taken up by the youth, can help boost household incomes but also support the country’s development agenda, which among others talks of agro-industrialisation.
“The more youth engage in commercial agriculture and value addition, the poverty and unemployment among them will be greatly reduced,” she said.
Alupo was speaking during the Annual General Meeting of her former school St. Elizabeth Girls SS Kidetok in Serere district on Saturday.
She lamented over the rate at which the youth in the country are shunning agriculture in favour of white-collar jobs, gambling in trading centers.
“The youth are always migrating to towns, engaging in gambling and sports betting, leaving the elders to produce for the ever-increasing population. With this phenomenon, there is need to mobilise the youth generation and entice them to embrace commercial farming,” said Alupo.
Alupo emphasised that embracing agriculture will not only contribute to better standards of living for the youth but will also help address the issue of food scarcity in some of the households.
“Agriculture is the back born of our economy and I called upon all of us to produce enough food for our children also some cash crops,” she said.
She emphasised the need for Serere district leaders and agriculture officers to guide the youth on economically viable agricultural enterprises.
Among the economically viable enterprises Alupo urged the youth and other people to engage in include fruit farming, piggery, fish farming, dairy farming, poultry keeping and coffee as cited in the Parish Development Model [PDM], a government initiative launched in February 2024 to help the active get out of poverty.
On his part, Michael Ongwara, the former LCIII Chairperson Pingire Sub-county underscored the need for agricultural extension officers to sensitise farmers on commercial agriculture.
He pointed out that farmers have failed to embrace commercialise agriculture because they lack knowledge on how to do it.
“Commercial agriculture continues to be a dream of many farmers because they lack knowledge on how to do it as the agriculture experts employed by government are not sensitising the farmers on best farming practices,” said Ongwara.
Meanwhile, Benard Akora, a farmer from Labor Sub-county urged government to sensitise the farmers on the dangers of environmental degradation.
He some farmers in the area have resorted to cutting trees for charcoal burning and destroying wetlands through rice growing.
Akora said climate change will not be fought if nothing is done about the cutting of trees and cultivation in the wetlands, saying the two play an important part in rainfall formation.
On the other hand, Fred Opolot, Member of Parliament for Pingire County appealed to government to desilt valley dams in Serere district and establish more irrigation schemes in order to avert the effects of climate change.
He explained that more than 96 percent of farming households in Uganda depend on rain-fed agriculture, making them highly vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change.
https://thecooperator.news/alupo-pledges-shs-50mln-for-amdf-saccos/
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