By Joshua Kato
Nkondo Multipurpose Rural Produce, a group for youth farmers at Nkondo-Kiwaba town council in Buyende district has been given a tractor by NAADS which has promoted commercial agriculture in the community.
Cornelius Kalebi, the chairman of the group explains that the tractor has improved their production.
“We were given this tractor by NAADS about five years ago. At the time we were 20 members but because of the improvement in our incomes, more community members have joined that we are now 250 members,” he explains.
According to Kalebi, the tractor has increased acreage of members especially those growing maize as they hire the tractor to clear the land at shs70, 000 an acre. Non members par sh100,000 per acre.
“This has also improved members’ incomes as they can now plant on time thus improving their harvest and incomes as well,” he explains.
In a bid to mechanize agriculture for improved production and productivity, the Government of Uganda through NAADS under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), has so far procured 370 tractors and implements that have been availed to farming communities across the country under the MAAIF strategy for promotion of agricultural mechanization.
The tractors were procured in phases, with the first batch of 40 tractors that the Government piloted in Western Uganda for pasture multiplication in 2017. An additional 280 we procured in 2019/2020 and in 2020/21, 50 tractors were procured and distributed. In the current year 2022/23, 20 more tractors are to be procured, bringing the distributed machines to over 400 units.
