By Prossy Nandudu
Farmers have been asked to make use of funds through the Parish Development Saccos to purchase agro-inputs as they prepare for the next planting season.
The call was made by the commissioner in charge of Agriculture extension and Skills management, Dr Henry Nakelet Opolot and coordinator of the Agriculture Cluster Development Project, that has been giving farmers subsidized inputs.
His advice follows calls from farmers who have been receiving subsided inputs through the project but to date, they haven’t been contacted by the ministry for the same.
The World Bank funded project that is phasing out will no longer offer the subsidy, and according to Opolot government will take over through the Parish Development Modal.
He however cautioned that before farmers can access the money, they should re-trained and prepared so as to make use of the borrowed money. PDM was launched in 2022 of which each parish was meant to receive sh100.
Although some legislatures say the money is still not accessible to farmers, the Edward Katende, the PDM Technical Advisor said in an interview at the New Vision offices recently, that money will be issued once they are sure that beneficiaries are ready.
“We want to prevent past incidences where farmers would access funds for agriculture and then divert it, we shall first consider farmer groups or farmers who have already prepared their gardens and are only waiting for the money to purchase inputs and related expenses,” said Katende.
