By Prossy Nandudu
Large-scale farmers with more than 50 acres are to get tractors from the Government in a move expected to increase production.
The tractors are part of the Government’s plans of mechanising agriculture for commercial production.
To kick start the initiative, a total of 25 tractors were on Wednesday handed over to some farmers starting with Makerere University’s Soybean improvement programme at the Namalere Agriculture Mechanisation Center.
While handing over the tractors, agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze said the support to large-scale farmers will also uplift small-scale ones.
“We are supporting large-scale commercial farmers and organised groups with tractors to open up more land. And some people need to appreciate that smallholder farmers on their own cannot sustainably do farming without the support of the large-scale commercial farmers,” Tumwebaze said.
He added that although small-scale farmers need tractors, too, maintenance becomes hard, but by working with large-scale farmers near them, they will benefit.
“So, the intention of giving out tractors is to increase production, to plant more and, therefore, have enough food for domestic consumption and for export which is part of our strategy,” Tumwebaze added.
The 25 tractors were procured by the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) as part of the agriculture ministry’s programme to mechanise agriculture.
According to NAADS’ guidelines, all beneficiaries are to offer tractor hire services to enable their communities to benefit from these tractors.
NAADS executive director Dr Sam Mugasi said large-scale farmers have land but haven’t been having the support to cultivate it.
“By giving them tractors, these will open up land, increase production acreages for the country to achieve the needed volumes for both domestic consumption and trade,” Mugasi said.
Mugasi, who is on traversing different parts of the country with the media, added that they are now targeting large-scale farmers after supporting small-scale farmers for close to 20 years with seedlings of different crops and enterprises such as poultry and piggery.
“You cannot open 100 acres of land using a hoe, we are trying to create incentives for large-scale farmers to be able to open up more land and be able to produce more,” he added.
