PDM: Oyam district official urges beneficiaries on mindset change
OYAM – The deputy chief administrative officer of Oyam district, Catherine Kapsawani has called for a mindset change if the beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model [PDM] are to make any strides in improving their household incomes.
She said it is possible to have a modern parish in the country only if people`s mindset is tuned to embrace the PDM as the new magic bullet that will transform their livelihoods through commercial production.
Meeting PDM parish leaders at Minakulu Sub-county days ago, Kapsawani said if people, especially in the rural areas don’t develop positive attitudes, they will not realise the government`s target of having every family earn Shs 20 million annually through commercial agriculture.
“It is possible for us to succeed in PDM, and it is possible for us to have modern parishes if we have the right mindset,” she said, adding “If we don’t change our poor mindset, we shall not get that Shs 20mln and have modern parishes.”
The programme launched by President Yoweri Museveni in February 2022 aims at moving 3.5mln households still in the subsistence economy to the money economy for at least five years.
Government started its five-year funding of the PDM in the current financial year 2022/2023, budgeting over Shs 1 trillion for the 10,594 parishes in Uganda, each expected to receive Shs 100mln revolving fund for enterprise groups to borrow for commercial production.
According to the programmes’ guidelines, the enterprise groups and individuals are supposed to engage in coffee growing, dairy farming, piggery, fish farming, as well as growing beans, maize, and fruits among others.
President Museveni said recently that most parishes in the country, through their PDM SACCOs have received Shs 50mln of the Shs 100mln promised by his government. Government officials concerned with the programme say the balance could be completed soon given that the current financial year ends on June 30, 2023.
Last year the Oyam district planner, John Max Agong suggested that more money should be put into mindset change and ideological orientation campaign if PDM is to bear fruit.
He said then that the Shs 21 billion the government earmarked for mindset change activity was not enough to cover all the districts and cities in the country with an estimated population of 49 million people.
https://thecooperator.news/oyam-cooperative-asks-govt-for-maize-seeds/
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