NAADS ED urges media to report positively about agriculture
Written by admin on January 24, 2023
The Executive Director (ED) of the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS), Dr Samuel Mugasi, has urged members of the media fraternity to support government in spreading the message of embracing farming as a business especially among the youth.
While addressing editors and reporters from different media houses during a sensitisation meeting on NAADS new strategic direction, Dr Mugasi said the future of Uganda and Africa at large is entrenched in agriculture.
“By 2050, the global population is projected to be 10 billion people and all these will need food. That is why Uganda and other African countries need to position themselves well to become the major suppliers of food across the world,” he said.
The ED said NAADS intervention over the years have contributed to food security in the country citing its abundance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We believe that our support to farmers with agricultural inputs especially the planting materials has a significant contribution to the reduction in the percentage of farmers in subsistence farming from 68 to 39,” he continued.
Dr Mugasi said the media has the power to persuade people, therefore, should use this power positively by first of all engaging in farming as a business and spreading the message of farming as a business.
About NAADS new strategic direction, he said NAADS has moved away from giving free agricultural inputs to farmers and is now using the approach of co-funding for sustainable agricultural value chains.
Under this approach, government pays 70% of the cost of seedlings and seeds while the farmer pays for the remaining 30%.
He told the media that NAADS is now focusing on implementing an intervention for promoting and scaling of emerging high value strategic commodities notably, hass avocado, macadamia and cashew nuts under the nucleus farmer partnership strategy.
The ED said Uganda’s economy has been largely dependent on coffee, tea and other major agricultural exports but now the country is diversifying to include other high value crops like hass avocado and macadamia which have a high demand both in the local and international markets.
Maureen On January 24, 2023 at 4:58 pm
Problem is not the media but the public perception. Need to do an assessment and determine why the local population calls all NAADS products “Bi-Nadizi”