Ngetta ZARDI kicks off activities for first planting season
LIRA-As the first planting season for this year draws nearer, Ngetta Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute [ ZARDI ], one of the government agencies implementing massive food production, in the country has begun opening fields for early planting.
According to Dr. Baranbas Mudde, the acting director of the institute, they have so far ploughed 80 acres of land for planting both maize and soybeans in the new season.
Presenting a progress report for 2023 food intervention and ongoing work, Mudde said a service provider is ploughing the land so that the institute catches up with the early rains.
Last year government kicked off plans to enhance food production of four major food crops to avert food insecurity in the country, as it released Shs 176 billion to enhance the production of maize, soybeans, beans, and sorghum in different regions of the country.
This followed a cabinet decision for immediate short-term strategies to produce food in the country after some regions of the country experienced an acute shortage of food, leading to some deaths.
Six Government agencies, National Agricultural Research and Organisation [NARO], Uganda Prison Services [UPS], Uganda People`s Defence Forces [UPDF], National Enterprises Corporation [NEC} as well as National Animal Genetics Resource Centre and Data Bank [NaGRC &DB].
The crops identified include soybeans, sorghum, maize and beans and the intention is to intensify production of security food crops.
Dr Mudde said they have planned for procurement of post-harvest handling equipment, pest control and packaging equipment.
He said they expect yields for soybeans between 24-40 and maize between 40-100 tons at the end of the new season.
Rev. Susan Awino, a member of the NARO governing council urged government to release funds early such that planting is done early enough.
However, Ngetta ZARDI recently reported they registered poor harvests in the first phase of the project that kicked off in August last year.
Briefing NARO governing council members at the institute Mudde said late planting and bad weather led to poor yields last season.
Mudde said heavy rains flooded maize fields, which resulted in the rotting of the seeds, resulting in low maize yields.
“The activities began late and this affected performance of crops because the expected yield from soybean of 0.5 tons per acre is unlikely to be met,” he added.
At the beginning of the second planting season last year, Ngetta NZARDI expected 1,000 tonnes of soybean and 1,000 tonnes of maize out of 165 acres of land opened.
The farm manager, Micheal John Kodet said then that the institute lacked planters, adding that they took three weeks to plant the maize, using hand hoes.
https://thecooperator.news/ngetta-zrdi-realises-poor-farm-yields/
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