AMURU – Gilbert Olanya, the Kilak South Member of Parliament has donated a tractor to farmers in his constituency.
The tractor worth Shs165 million was received by Rwot Otinga Otto Otuka Yai, the Clan Chief of Lamogi from Parabongo trading center in Odongdak village, Guru guru sub-county in Amuru District.
Olanya says he used part of the Shs 200 million given to Members of Parliament to buy new cars to buy the tractor to boost commercial and large-scale agricultural production.
“Having looked at how our people suffer, tilttinging their gardens using hand hoes which in most cases has very little impact in terms of yields. I decided to use the Shs 200 million given by Parliament to buy new cars to buy a tractor for the farmers in my constituency,” says Olanya.
“For long time I have been supporting them by paying the school fees of their children under the scholarship program in my office, but I thought that if we empower the communities financially, they are able to meet their own needs, rather than transferring the burden to us as leaders,” Olanya explains.
He says more than 10,000 farmers in his constituency will only buy fuel of 50,000 per acre and free of charge for persons with disability.
“We shall tilt freely for persons with disability and other very vulnerable people, but for the able-bodied people, they will give us 50,000 per acre, this will mainly go into buying fuel and feeding the tractor operators,” Olanya hints.
According to Olanya, most of the farmers don’t have money and resources for them to practice large scale agricultural production.
Rwot Otinga Otto, the Clan Chief of Lamogi appeals to the farmers to utilize the tractor to fight household poverty and save money to send their children to school and cater for their personal needs.
“Our people must now start working extra hard since they have some support at a relatively lower cost to achieve their dream of large-scale commercial agriculture. This issue of seeing children at home, not being educated and at the end disturbing the peace and security of the community should be fought through hard work,” Rwot Otinga says.
“I also want to encourage you to start saving as a family for your needs because in most cases when people save individually, the impact of the money is not felt by the family. Hopefully when you have a bumper harvest, you can save and plan as a unit, and this will help in fighting household poverty from our communities,” Otinga appeals.
Lilly Awacango, a resident of Kololo in Lakang sub-county says, currently the demand for tractors has increased and as well as the price for ploughing.
Currently the price of ploughing an acre piece of land is at 95,000, an increase from 80,000 last year.
“There are very few tractors that are tilting for community (Privately owned) land in our areas because most of them are hired to work in large farms. Now the few which tilt our land are also charging us very expensively. We used to tilt an acre of land at 80,000 but this has increased to now 95,000,” Awacango says.
Awacango said, ploughing with hand hoes is no longer productive given the energy required.
“We have used hand hoes for years and can’t do much because many of us are getting tired because we tend to overwork ourselves in the name of tilting bigger chunks of land. With this tractor, at least our aims of starting large scale production will be made easier,” Awacango adds.
Lilly Lamwaka, a resident of Odongdak village in Odur parish in Guru guru sub-county says, at least they can have an increased production which helps in fighting hunger and poverty.
Lamwaka says, with the scarcity of tractors in the district especially for the small-scale farmers, they are forced to dig on a small scale which implies little production.
At the beginning of every new political term, Parliament gives money to Members of Parliament to buy vehicles to ease movement to and from their constituencies as well as other official movements. This new political term, each Member of Parliament was given Shs 200 Million to buy brand new cars.
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