Minister Tumwebaze advises Busoga farmers to replace Sugarcane growing with ovacado
According to the Minister, regions like Busoga can transit from sugar cane to Hass avocado and also the mid-western and Northern parts of this country can do well in Macadamia due to their agro-ecological potential and this can help in increasing the value of perennial commodities for export.
Kimera Abdul 
While presenting the budget framework of the financial year 2022/23 to the to the parliamentary committee on Agriculture, Animal industry and Fisheries today, the Minister of Agriculture Hon. Frank Tumwebaze said that whereas some regions have perennial crops for cash, other regions don't have them yet these have the agro-ecological potential to take on the new emerging perennial crops on large scale.
According to the Minister, regions like Busoga can transit from sugar cane to Hass avocado and also the mid-western and Northern parts of this country can do well in Macadamia due to their agro-ecological potential and this can help in increasing the value of perennial commodities for export.
The Minister also added that whereas land is one of the primary factors of production, the Ministry lately noted that Uganda is endowed with over 44% of arable land yet only 34.4% of this is under agricultural use but they have a target of lifting this percentage to 50% by 2026 with the main focus put on achieving maximum land of use and also increasing productivity.
Factors like Mechanisation, Pests and vector control, Development & issuance policy, Regulatory guidelines plan and investing in Labour saving technologies according to the Minister will be given the first priority in the Ministry’s production component of value addition.
On the issue of Agricultural Value Chain Development Strategy, the Minister said that this was approved by the cabinet on November 15th 2021 as one of the tools to adopt and use in implementation of the National Development Program III and also the Parish Development Model pillar I that involves production, storage, processing and marketing.
“The strategy was designed well aware of the success and short comings of previous interventions putting more emphasis on articulation, defining strategies plus stating and defining the various actors” he added emphasizing that this Agricultural chain is key for Agricultural planning and development by both government and private sector actors.
Honorable Tumwebaze appealed to the legislators for their support in securing adequate resources for these priorities as this is the only way they can meet all these expectations.
