Government under NAADS program has supported Albertine Ugrandi Farm in Hoima with 2500 Macadamia seedings.
Today in Hoima District, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner Kyakashari Michael has handed over 2500 seedlings of Macademia to Albertine Ugrandi farm from Ndaragi Kisukuma Subcounty, in a public private partnership.
The government through NAADS has included Macadamia and Has Avocado crops onto the high-value plants that required specialized interventions to ensure increased household incomes.
During the handover, the RDC called upon the district extention workers to educate the local farmers to start engaging in cultivating high value crops like Macademia, Hass Avocado, and others so that they can earn more from agriculture. Farmers have money and land that can be utilized to cultivate these crops that yield highly other than going for other cereals.
The Vice Chairperson Mulumba Hellen congratulated the farmer upon receiving the support from government and encouraged other farmers to visit Ugrandi farm as a demo farm and learn more on how to grow this high value crop.
The District Production and Marketing officer highlighted that the government is using a strategy where participating farmers who desire to take the seedlings under this intervention contribute 30% of the cost of the seedling, while the government through NAADS contributes 70% in line with the current government strategic direction of cost-sharing by beneficiary farmers, all aimed at ensuring ownership and sustainability.
Unlike in the previous approach where NAADS operated through the local government structures, this strategy involves an integrated value chain approach and participation of farmers through an out growers’ scheme and/ or any other nucleus farmer-farmer/producer outreach modality and is intended to enable access to relevant agricultural support services like quality agricultural inputs, extension, research and technology, storage, processing and value addition, market information and market for produce, finance, and insurance.
