About 10 food crop enterprises have been selected by the Ministry of Agriculture to spearhead climate smart agriculture in 69 rural districts across the country.
The crops which include, hass avocado, mangoes, cassava, coffee, cocoa, cashew nut, citrus/oranges, sorghum, soya bean and maize among others are listed under the Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation project ( UCSATP).
The initiative with an overall financing of Shs354.7m aims at empowering farmers to adopt climate-smart practices, improving productivity, resilience and food security in the face of climate change.
The Acting Principal Agricultural officer in charge of Horticulture at the Ministry Mr Kizito Odongo said, “The project will require that farmers contribute about 20 percent and the government will contribute 80 percent of the matching grant. We will support farmers with financial, marketing and quality inputs, and advisory services to practice good agricultural practices to increase productivity of these selected value chains.”
“We’re equipping farmers with climate-resilient seeds, pesticides, and technologies, along with essential tools and services. Critically, we’re also promoting insurance education, empowering beneficiary groups to understand its importance and take control of their risk management, rather than imposing it,” he added.
The selection criteria for the beneficiary farmer groups participating in UCSATP will entail farmers with more households engaged in the preferred enterprise, with higher production, existence of organised groups to build synergies and availability of land for block farms.
The farmer groups should also possess valid identification, bank account details, registration at the district level with not less than six months of existence and hold membership of 10 to 30 persons among other requirements.
