By Joshua Kato
The 2023 best farmers will be unveiled today. This marks the culmination of nine months of a search that took Vision Group journalists and a panel of judges across the country.
The function, which will be presided over by Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, will kick off at 4:00pm and the best from the 2023 group will be selected.
There will also be a live band. The function will be attended by other stake holders in the agriculture sector. The 2023 Best Farmers competition was launched at Dr Emma Naluyima’s farm at Bwerenga, off Entebbe in March.
Naluyima is a 2014 and 2022 winner. The competition is organised by Vision Group and sponsored by the Netherlands embassy in Uganda, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudjis Nutrition BV.
Winners will be picked from 10 sub-regions of Uganda, in addition to three youths. For the last eight years, 95 winners have been crowned and 85 toured the Netherlands to learn and exchange experiences with the Dutch farmers.
The number of winners will grow to 108 by the end of today. The 10 selected winners will get cash prizes, with the best taking sh50m, the second sh30m, third sh20m, while the rest will share sh50m.
The three in the youth category will travel to the Netherlands, but will not receive a cash prize. Schools and an individual that has promoted youth farming will also be recognised. So far, sh1.2b has been given out in cash prizes, thanks to dfcu Bank. The winners use the money to acquire farm machinery.
The competition has been running since 2014, but was not held in 2021, owing to COVID-19 disruptions.
While they toured the country, the judges identified several issues that affect farmers including bad roads which affect access to markets, low access to extension services, fake farm inputs, poor farm labour, difficult access to finances, and long product certification.
Prof. Ogenga Latigo, one othe judges, appealed to the Government and President Yoweri Museveni to provide farmers with long-term credit, with at least a grace period of two years.
Latigo said the move willencourage people to invest in agriculture and those already in the sector to improve their projects.
“Agriculture is something we cannot run away from, the population is increasing and we must be able to produce enough food to feed ourselves and have enough for export to generate income,” Latigo said.
Improvement in dairy sector
Latigo also said the dairy sector, especially livestock, is tremendously improving in western Uganda. However, the crop sector still has a challenge due to climate change, which is affecting them negatively.
For the dairy sector, he said they identified acaricides as the major problem affecting farmers. Ticks which have become resistant and price fluctuations are also challenges affecting them. Farmers are also affected by the challenge of labour shortage and animal theft, all which need to be solved.
Judges’ recommendations
- Livestock farmers are more consistent than crop farmers.
- There are job opportunities to both skilled and semi-skilled people in the agriculture sector.
- Trainings at village level by best farmers should be supported to help reduce the extension gap.
- Good publicity for areas where the farmers come from since the country gets to know them.
- Giving improved seeds to the community catalylises growth in production.
- Developing a business accelerator programme to support in business governance and leadership skills for farmers.
- Agriculture should not be mixed with politics. Agriculture creates a strong fall-back position.
- Government involvement on the ground among farmers must improve.
- Farmers should be insured against natural calamities.
- Create a forum for farmers to be able to pick up suggestions.
- Emphasise capacity building for farmers to be able to offer skills for people/students.
