PDM: Minister asks farmers to invest in value addition

GULU -The Minister of State for Environment Beatrice Atim Anywar has asked farmers in northern Uganda to invest in value addition, saying it is in line with the objectives of the Parish Development Model [PDM] expected to pull 39 percent of Ugandan households out of the subsistence to the money economy.

Anywar described value addition in the agricultural sector as huge economic empowerment in the agricultural production, which the farmers in Acholi Sub-region have not invested in.

The minister was on Monday addressing political leaders, technocrats, and leaders from cooperatives during a stakeholders’ meeting on the implementation of the PDM in the region.

Government has pledged to inject Shs100 million into each of the 10,594 parishes per year for five years, for organised groups to borrow for income-generating activities.

She explained that despite huge production in the region, the poverty in the households has remained high because of lack of investment in value addition, which has a high monetary value.

“There will not be a shortage of markets when products have standards and once you produce in large volume, invest in value addition and with standard, the market will find you,” Anywar explained.

She also asked the farmers to trade in cooperatives, which she said would give them a much better bargaining power to market their products and avoid exploitation from the middlemen.

The Gulu City mayor Alfred Okwonga commended the Minister for popularising the implementation of the PDM, which he described as the last bullet to fight poverty in the region.

Okwonga appealed to the elected leaders to deter from sabotaging the government programmes, which aim to transform the country from peasantry into a money economy.

However, he cautioned the technocrats from extorting money from the beneficiaries in disguise of monitoring; something he said has failed many of the government interventions in the region.

The Aswa County Member of Parliament, Wokorach Simon Peter has also appealed to the local governments to strengthen monitoring in the implementation of the PDM.

https://thecooperator.news/pdm-success-alupo-urges-leaders-to-sensitise-communities/

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