By Sophan Niwamanya
apearlnews.com
Apple farmers in Rubanda district, under their association, Rubanda District Apple Farmers’ Cooperative Society Limited, have asked the government to take up the distribution of seedlings and agro-inputs to organized farmers as a way of reducing the counterfeit materials being sold in Ugandan markets.
Farmers made the request on Saturday during a strategic planning meeting at the Rendezvous hotel in Kabale municipality to discuss the association’s challenges and develop a five-year strategic plan to help mitigate the challenges.
Led by the association chairpersons, Joab Onesmus Ndyomugyenyi, Callist Asiimwe, and Jennifer Bazirake, farmers revealed that lack of quality seedlings and counterfeit agro-inputs circulating in markets affect the production of apples in the district. They said that each apple seedling costs between 700 and 8000 shillings, which makes it very expensive for them to buy the seedlings. Farmers added that the government ceased to distribute free seedlings to farmers through Operation Wealth Creation in 2017, which has turned into a problem for farmers and is therefore affecting productivity. They want the government to take charge of distributing seedlings and agro-inputs to farmers in order to protect them from the burden of buying poor-quality seeds and fake agro-inputs.
Nadi Ampumwize Kibatenga, a consultant with the IDEA Uganda consultancy firm on project planning and management, told farmers that the challenges they are facing would be tackled using a formulated and set strategic plan that would result in resource mobilization from the government and non-governmental organizations. He added that the idea of the government taking charge of seedling distribution and agro-inputs has been long overdue.
