Kyabazinga advises subjects to embrace modern farming
Kamuli. Kyabazinga William Gabula Nadiope IV has urged his subjects to embrace modern farming methods such as irrigation if they are to use agriculture to fight poverty.
He also advised them to maintain sustainable land management.
“We are endowed with fertile land and rain but still crying over poverty and hunger. We should engage our people in sustainable land management and popularise smart conservation agriculture. They should take farming as a business and employ agricultural technology and agribusiness advisory services,” the Kyabazinga said.
He made the call during an engagement with the family of the executive director of the Uganda Road Fund (URF), Dr Andrew Naimanye, whom he hosted at Budhumbula Palace for Christmas.
The Kyabazinga also urged subjects to always find time to reflect, plan and engage themselves in programmes that can lead to increased household incomes and better standards of living.
The Kyabazinga said work on his Budhumbula model farm is being set up for education and demonstration purposes.
He asked the subjects to visit and learn good farming practices and also use it to change their mindsets and perspectives on farming.
He took his guests on a guided tour of the farm of cattle, goats, apples, pasture, coffee, and matooke among others. It has a submerged water system and solar power for irrigation farming and covers more than 190 acres.
The Kyabazinga tasked Mr Naimanye to mobilise young entrepreneurs and elites in urban areas to go and set up small ventures that will inspire the rural folk to embrace new ideas and engage in productive ventures as a way of contributing to the transformation of Busoga.
Dr Naimanye called for an end to land fragmentation and embrace modern technology if Busoga is to remain food secure.
“Exposure to available technology, adjusting from rain and season based farming will make our people advance from subsistence peasantry to modern farming and we shall regain our position as the food basket in Uganda,” he said.
Dr Naimanye pledged to engage in lobbying for resources and to mobilise elite Basoga to return and develop the region.
“Busoga is endowed with natural and human resources which we must harness to our advantage for the transformation of our people. We need to put the past behind us, keep together and show cause as to why we are not a formidable force,” he said.
