Officers Trained by Ugandas Ivory Tower to Spearhead Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) Officers of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) are currently undergoing an intensive training programme at the Faculty of Agriculture, Makerere University in a move aimed at aiding communities fight poverty within their households. The two-week training, dubbed: Agricultural Induction Training Programme, saw over 200 officers participating with the goal of providing supervisory services to groups working with farmers at the grassroots. The officers are being taken through various areas in the field of modern agriculture including but not limited to; mechanisation, irrigation, crop and animal breeding (dairy farming, goat rearing, piggery and poultry farming), aquaculture, seeds and seedlings, storage, pest control, use of fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides, soil make-up, analysis of agricultural products and nutritional needs of farm animals. The sessions are conducted by senior engineers and lecturers from Makerere University, doctors, professors, experts and other personnel from the various agriculture related institutions. The officers have received lectures, engaged in discussions and visited demonstration farms including; Kabanyoro (belonging to Makerere University) in Gayaza, Aquaculture Research and Development Centre in Kajjansi and other demonstration farms in Kayunga district purposely to exercise with fast hand field information. The training is also running under the nationwide Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) Project which is headed and directed by Gen Caleb Akandwanaho Salim Saleh (rtd), Senior Presidential Advisor on Defence and Security. Operation Wealth Creation was conceived by President Yoweri Museveni with the sole aim of achieving a systematic national socio-economic transformation where household incomes all over the country will be improved through carefully selected viable enterprises with national, regional and global markets backed by sound infrastructure. Gen Saleh was appointed as the overall Commander. The Commander’s mission is to co-ordinate national socio-economic transformation in order to eradicate poverty in Uganda. The decision to employ a military approach to poverty eradication is supported by the view that its more pragmatic, taken seriously and is in the end accountable. The main effort of the project is the improvement of household incomes beyond mere subsistence through carefully selected enterprises and it lies with the families as the basic units of production in the target areas. This was premised on the fact that only 32% of Uganda’s population is currently engaged in viable economic activities as per the last census. The remaining 68% are involved in the subsistence economy which leaves them impoverished. The Commander thus deemed it necessary to train and equip soldiers who will later go to the communities to sensitize them about modern farming methods, supply seeds and seedlings and extend advisory services where required. Save for agriculture, Operation Wealth Creation project in its entirety will also involve interventions in microfinance support services, investment, savings, value addition, marketing and energy. It will also focus on low cost housing, provision of water, construction of education and health facilities with the coordination and support of local leaders at various levels. All these will be achieved through partnerships with organisations like National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Uganda Coffee Development Authority, National Forestry Authority, Private Sector Foundation of Uganda, Uganda National Farmers’ Association, Makerere University, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, among others.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 22:12:56 +0000
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