By Vision Reporter
If you are in the agriculture value chain, you have no other programme apart from the Harvest Money Expo, which kicks off today in Kampala.
The Expo, which was launched on February 1, will see all stakeholders in the agricultural sector attend in large numbers as there are a lot of lessons and important information to pick from the over 100 stalls already set up at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala.
Hundreds of participants, including farmers, students, agro-entreprenuers and all other interested Ugandans are expected at the expo.
All students interested will be able to learn from their colleagues who are already practicing farming and will also exhibit and train. The exhibiting schools include Gayaza High School and Iganga Secondary School. The Expo will end on Sunday.
The 2024 Harvest Money Expo is organised by Vision Group with sponsorship from the Netherlands embassy, Tunga Nutrition, The National Agricultural Advisory services (NAADS), Engineering Solutions (ENGSOL), the Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) and TechnoServe.
Vision Group chief executive officer Don Wanyama thanked all the sponsors, partners and all stakeholders for walking the journey with the company to the launch of the eighth edition of the Harvest Money Expo.
“We assure you that whoever comes to Kololo will get what they expect. We have hundreds of companies, government agencies, financial and other regulating institutions in one place. Therefore, there will be a lot to share and learn,” he said.
According to Wanyama, there will be 27 training sessions during the three days of the Expo where experts will be sharing critical information with farmers that will enable them to improve their farming and management practices such that production and productivity is increased.
Commenting about the Expo during the launch, agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze applauded Vision Group for the Expo, which he said creates a platform that brings together all the agriculture sector players to discuss and share relevant information that transforms the sector.
“Vision group’s Editor in Chief, Babra Kaija, one day told me that development journalism requires a lot of money. But we are happy that despite all that, the company can still foot the bills and organise this Expo, which has greatly contributed to the development, transformation and mind-set change of Ugandans, especially the youth,” he said.
He added that as a ministry, they believe that knowledge transfer is crucial in the transformation of the sector as people start doing things the right way after acquiring knowledge from the Expo, which in turn improves production and productivity.
On the other hand, he expressed gratitude towards the great milestone achieved by Tunga Nutrition, which has started processing and producing feed concentrates and finished feeds, which have for long been imported. He said this would make the livestock business more profitable, as the cost of feeds would go down.
“Poultry is one of the biggest employers of Ugandans especially the youths but many have been running away because of the high feed cost. With Tunga processing the concentrate from Uganda, we believe the feed cost will go down and more youths will join the sector,” he said.
He called upon all agricultural stakeholders to pick interest in the agriculture Bill, which is now at parliament such that their views are captured and considered before it is passed into law.
“The bill aims at protecting the health of people and animals consuming agricultural products but also genuine processors from the fake ones who have for long jeopardised the business such that we create a sustainable and safe food industry for everybody,” he stressed.
