The Minister of Agriculture Frank Tumwebaze on Tuesday Aug 10, handed over five brand new TAFE tractors to the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Dr. Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu as fulfilment of President Museveni’s pledge to support Agricultural mechanization efforts by Religious Institutions.
Archbishop Kaziimba thanked President Museveni for honouring his pledge.
Kaziimba said the five tractors will be allocated to five different dioceses in the country yet to be named, to support agricultural mechanisation efforts spearheaded by the Church of Uganda.
The tractors given to Church of Uganda were fully equipped with disc ploughs and harrows.
The fulfilment of the tractors’ pledge by Museveni is also one of the steps towards the realization of the goals of a five year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) and the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) that was signed in November 2020.
On November 19, 2020, NAADS signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Inter Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) with the aim of addressing food insecurity and poverty among the faithful and the general farming population in Uganda.
The signing ceremony took place at the NAADS secretariat and was officiated by the then Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja.
According to NAADS, the MOU sought to rally religious leaders and their congregations towards agricultural production of priority crops for improved food and nutrition security and incomes and to support Households in agricultural production.
The arrangement also promised to allign, different relevant gov’t of Uganda ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to partner with IRCU to support implementation of the government’s strategic interventions for agro industrialization under the National Development Plan III.
“This initiative is based on the desire by IRCU to support the government in achieving its agro-industrialization drive through addressing mindset change, spirituality, and low agriculture production, among others.
NAADS said it would use the structures of IRCU to mobilize, equip and position religious leaders to tackle mindset change towards agro-industrialization
Under the MOU, IRCU was expected to rally the population towards shared values, vision, togetherness, food security and household incomes using religious institutions as inculcating mindset change among the followers.
In return, NAADS would procure and deliver quality inputs within the planned activities for this initiative.
Similarly, IRCU would promote mindset change as a means towards tackling ideological disorientation among Ugandans while NAADS would provide technical backstopping during implementation.
NAADS’ is also expected to provide sensitization and agricultural skills training and liaise with other government actors to ensure smooth and coordinated implementation.
