By Joshua Kato
Uganda has got the potential to be an international food basket. This was observed by Mariam Blak, Uganda`s ambassador to Netherlands. “The country can feed the African region and the world as a whole,” she said.
This was contained in a speech read on her behalf by Byonabye B.B Mwesigwa, the 3rd Secretary at the Uganda embassy in Belgium/ Netherlands, during a ‘match making’ event in Utrecht, last Thursday.
The 2019 best farmers were on the 4th day of their learning tour of the Netherlands, in which among other activities they visit farms and meet up with potential business partners.
Several people at the match making event alluded to Uganda`s good weather which produces tasty fruits and vegetables, only to be let down by low quality, especially in hygiene and low quantities. She explained that on the other hand, the Dutch are emphasizing both quality produce and quantities.
“It is very important for Ugandan farmers to come here and learn because the Netherlands is the epi-centre of farming innovations in the world,” she said. Among the groups that the farmers visited in their six- day stay in the Netherlands include dairy, horticulture farms, apple farms, research institutions like Wagengen, equipment dealers and fabricators etc.
The ambassador thanked the government of the Netherlands for their continued support to the best farmers competition. “The best farmers is one of the most prominent success stories in the cooperation between Uganda and the Netherlands,” Blak said. The embassy of the Netherlands has been supporting the best farmers competition since 2014. Other sponsors of the competition include KLM Airlines, dfcu Bank, Vision Group and Koudjis Nutrition BV.
Innovate
Blak pointed out that as long as Ugandan farmers innovate and practice consistently, they can improve and earn more from their sweat. Using the example of the dairy sector in Uganda, she said “At the moment, Uganda produces 5.5bn liters of milk per year, up from 3.2bn two years ago. All this has come due to improvements in innovations,” she said. With the increasing challenges of producing milk in Europe, Uganda has potential to export her milk to the larger market.
Josephat Byaruhanga, the Senior Policy Officer, Agriculture at the embassy of the Netherlands asked Ugandan farmers to pick easily implementable practices in the Netherlands and adopt them to Uganda. “The farmers here produce much more because of the levels of investment that they put in, but you can pick the management practices including the top- notch time keeping and farm organization,” he said.
Anthony Mateega, one of the farmers demanded from his fellow farmers and Ugandans in general to have an eye for business, grab the opportunities and start earning more. “I have seen the level of production here, but also noticed that tropical foods are actually imported. These are the opportunities we must grab as a tropical country and export our fruits here,” he said.
