Gov’t to revive district farm institutes

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries under the Directorate of agricultural extension services is fast-tracking the revival of District Farm Institutes to boost agriculture.

The initiative which is part of the broader objective of transforming farmers from subsistence to commercial agriculture has been put under a project dubbed National agricultural innovation and skills enhancement whose proposals are currently under review in the Ministry of Finance.

The project is estimated to cost 18 billion shillings for five years.

Dr Patience Rwamigisha, the commissioner in charge of agricultural extension services, says since the creation of their directorate in 2015, they were entrusted to ensure the revival of the institutes.

The institutes were set up across the country in the 1960s to equip farmers with knowledge of best agricultural production practices through short training courses. However, with time most of them collapsed due to poor funding from government among other factors.

Specioza Namusisi, a former extension worker in Mityana, says that the facilities served as demonstration farms to show how various agricultural technologies were applied and also helped in multiplying and distribution of different technologies from research centres.

Namusisi recalls how the District Farmers Institute played a big role in transforming agriculture in the country. She says the institutes model was better since farmers could be brought to a single place thus covering a wide and be taught hands-on than the current situation were extension workers move from farmer to farmer.

Namusisi notes that given Uganda’s persistent farming challenges which include long droughts, depleted soils, and incurable crop diseases, among others, there is no doubt that the farm institutes function will be of high importance given the fact that several things are rapidly changing within the sector.

Mityana District Production Officer Daniel Sseremba says the revival of the DFIs has been overdue. He says that many production departments couldn’t offer the services which the institutes used to offer due to their nominal budgets.

Although the District Farm Institutes’ revival plans are in high gear, many of the facilities are dilapidated, others have since lost their land yet some were upgraded to host Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institutes.

However, Dr Rwamigisha says they are to reinstate the institutes function in Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute. He adds that they are also accessing the existing District Farm Institute to mobilize resources and rehabilitate the existing ones on top of re-surveying the land to kick out land grabbers.

Originally, there were more than 36 farm institutes, in each district. Dr Rwamigisha says they are planning to begin with those which exist as they plan forward to see if they can open others.

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